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Helping Your Local Lawyers

January 18, 2011 By David Leave a Comment

Local attorneys are often community boosters and frequent media advertisers. They probably already have a budget for marketing or sponsorships or community outreach.  So tapping into that part of the business community is a good way for you to start.

But don’t offer them a traditional banner ad to replace their newspaper buy. Offer them your expertise in a new way of marketing.

Kevin O’Keefe writes about social media and the legal profession at Lexblog. He writes that social media is replacing legal directories as the way lawyers connect with clients. About old-fashioned directories, he writes:

Those directories also benefit from a lack of understanding of the power of social networks by law firm leadership and in-house counsel. It’s easier to sell legal directory services to professionals on both sides of the equation – law firms and corporate consumers of legal services – when they have yet to experience the power and value of social networks.

If you’re operating an online news operation, you’re probably miles ahead of your local lawyers in understanding how social media can improve their business. And your expertise is valuable to them. Far more valuable than the print ad your local newspaper is selling them once a month. So before you pitch a traditional ad package, consider sweetening the deal with extras like this: [Read more...]

Filed Under: Advertising, Marketing

What Do Profitable Hyperlocal News Sites Look Like?

January 18, 2011 By David 1 Comment

What do profitable independent news websites look like? Mel Taylor Media has a list of 7 common denominators. Among them:

  • They’re led by someone who thinks about revenue first, and content second.
  • They go after non-traditional revenue streams.
  • They’re advertiser and sponsor friendly, with some advertising as content. And they offer resources to train and educate local business owners.

I’m guessing #1 is the toughest nut to crack. Most journalists (myself included) were taught to think the business side of the equation was too messy for us to soil our hands with. Turns out the business and the journalism have to go hand-in-hand.

It doesn’t cheapen your site to take advertising. It doesn’t sully your credentials to help your advertisers. I don’t even have a problem with mixing some editorial and advertising content, as long as you label it.

The fact is, if you don’t “dirty your hands” to get some revenue rolling in, the purity of your journalistic ethic is irrelevant. This has to be about business — and figuring out creative ways to help business owners by pairing them up with your editorial content is one of the most fun parts of this job.

Filed Under: Hyperlocal, Journalism

SEO for Hyperlocal Sites

January 18, 2011 By David Leave a Comment

Matt McGee has moved on to other projects, but his Hyperlocalblogger site was the best around for concrete tips for independent local journalists. One of the best resources he developed was a series on search engine optimization for hyperlocal blogs. It’s a 5-part series, and well worth reading if you’re looking to get into the local news business online.

Filed Under: Hyperlocal, Journalism, Search

Awesomely Cool Local-Mobile App Idea #1

January 17, 2011 By David Leave a Comment

This is my website, so I get to do things like throw out silly ideas for mobile apps that would be awesomely cool. Thus, here is Post #1 in a potential new series entitled “Awesomely Cool Local-Mobile App Ideas.”

Title: Augmented Reality Reunion

Description: For all those class reunions in your hometown (there must be at least 3 or 4 a year, right?) an augmented reality application that allows you to hold up your phone and look through the camera. The phone identifies the person you’re looking and displays information about them, which they have provided to reunion organizers. Not only their names, but their spouse’s name, the number of kids they have, and anything else you ask them to provide before they show up.

Potential Sponsor: The local country club or bar & grill that is known as the go-to place for class reunions.

You can already do a lot of this stuff through iPhone applications like Yelp. This isn’t much different — you just have to be able to identify people by 1) their faces or 2) a barcode on their nametag, perhaps? So come on — someone build this, already! I have a sponsor I want to pitch. (And if you know an application that would do this, let me know in the comments.)

Filed Under: Apps, Marketing, Mobile

Helping Clients Buy Better

January 17, 2011 By David Leave a Comment

Mark Ramsey is one of the smartest people tracking changes in the media business. He focuses primarily on radio, and has great advice for local radio stations that applies to anyone who’s in the local media business.

If you’re a local media company, part of your job is to maximize the success of your client partners on their terms, whatever those are: Foot traffic, awareness, the ring of the cash register, etc. It’s not simply to stock more items in more categories and pitch them harder.

It constantly amazes me that so many of our digital assets are built to sell to our clients and so few are built to educate them and deepen our relationship with them.

Ramsey suggests building a website that specifically caters to your clients. Give them case studies that highlight success stories. Give them tips for how to best use your resources to promote themselves. Post a Q&A section that answers your clients’ questions about marketing. He has tons of other ideas, and you should go read the post here.

Anyone out there do this kind of thing already? If so, I’d love to hear about it.

Filed Under: Advertising, Hyperlocal, Marketing, Radio
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