Hard Refresh

Be Thankful for What you Have

nicwirtz — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 12:00:17 +0000

Sometimes there are days where my Twitter stream is full of people complaining.

Customer service, the weather, air conditioning, work, auto-DMs, the debt ceiling, the use of profanity, you name it, it’s there.

The minutiae of daily life are, on reflection, mundane and not very interesting. That’s why when tragedies such as befell Norway cause people to exclaim, “It makes you think, doesn’t it?”

Then the next day you are back to telling me where you are having lunch and which dry cleaning firm you will be going to after it.

Allow me to introduce my Monday.

We woke up full of expectation, today I was going to get one step closer to my Documento Personal de Identificación or DPI. Ever since I was pick-pocketed on Good Friday, I’ve been without local ID and a driving license – problematic when police checkpoints return.

The local ID I did have, the cedula is being retired, replaced by a biometric card to cut down on fraud and centralize information. The only problem is out of six details held in the department’s database, four of them are incorrect. There is no date of birth stored, my place of birth is incorrect, marital status is left blank, ditto the amount of dependent minors we have.

In other words, the only details that are correct are my name and sex.

So three months of waiting and we are back at square one, having to go through a lawyer to notarize that my details are incorrect. What is even more galling is that the file they have contains all the correct details from my passport. Not only that, I am an official resident of this country, a process that took a mere six months.

One government department has all the correct details and considers me a resident, the other has all my correct details but because of a database failure on their part, I’m the one that has to clean it up for them.

I won’t go into how I had to claim I’d lost a piece of paper that marked me as a foreigner despite the fact it didn’t exist when I first applied for residency.

Having experienced officialdom, I feared the worst about enduring customer service. The camera had hit the floor for the fifth time and started vibrating again. It probably needed a clean but the main issue was the vibration. After the requisite week, we were told it was ready, for a sixth of the price it was the last time.

When we got to the camera shop, the tech support guy proudly showed that the camera worked only for the familiar buzzing sound of the vibrations to be audible for all in the shop. There is only one Sony repair centre in the country, so options are limited.

It turns out that the technician had happily cleaned the camera, charging a mere $45 for the privilege. Who knows what it will cost to tighten up whatever bits are loose? The fact I can probably buy a new and better camera for less than the repairs will cost seems lost on the shop, a product of its monopolistic status I suspect.

When consumers do not have choice and are unaware of its existence, corporations have all the advantages. When it is a governmental department, you are stuck with whatever level of service they feel like.

To progress a country needs an informed public and a state willing to change. When you have neither, the only possible results are frustrated citizens and an obsolete system.

This post originally appeared as Be Thankful for What you Have on Hard Refresh. Some rights may be reserved by the blog's administrators, and the post's author.

Tumblr takes a Tumble

nicwirtz — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 23:27:31 +0000

With so much choice in the social media/blogging field, unexpected down times can quickly lose you your customer base as Tumblr may find out.

Tumblr had been riding high in blogging circles, overtaking WordPress.com blog numbers despite the latter service’s four-year head start. However, a series of stability issues are causing users to consider looking elsewhere.

Anyone who has played games online knows that there are sometimes periods where you cannot play, for a variety of reasons. However, the longer they go on, the more customers look for an alternative.

Perhaps this is one reason MMOs have, asides the ubiquitous World of Warcraft, failed to go mainstream.

What would make you leave Facebook, the daddy of all platforms?

Research has shown that the majority of us do not follow through with threats to change our bank accounts. For many there is more chance of changing political allegiances than our bank. Given the worldwide financial crisis there is certainly a fear factor in the consumer but most of all, we really dislike the hassle.

I still bank with my student bank despite their withdrawal, without warning, of my graduate overdraft facility. The resulting unauthorized overdraft fees, since proved illegal but never repaid, should have had me running. The tipping point proved to be having my credit card account closed after three months of a zero balance, despite 17 years of loyal custom.

Compounding this decision was the fact that the bank would not send out renewal cards because of a spate of ATM fraud that remains unresolved. Precisely how I was meant to use my card I’m not sure.

Or how about my experience with American Airlines? On a flight to my cousin’s wedding, my luggage was lost. Not lost in the “it arrives later sense” the 1% or whatever that’s lost, lost. Flying Miami-NY-London I was diverted onto the Miami-London direct flight. As luggage cannot go on a trans-Atlantic flight without its owner, I guess my luggage ended up somewhere between Miami and New York.

Not content with this, the return flight saw my luggage lost again, this time returned a day later without the new electric razor I’d had to buy. At least in this case I have choice, out-of-pocket by $1500 or so, I choose never to fly AA again.

My final example would be my natural gas supplier. The actual supply is monopolised, so to give the illusion of choice, there are a number of billing companies that can offer discounts. There was a huge fuss in the UK about this, as unscrupulous sales representatives would change people’s gas “supply” to their own company for the huge bonuses on offer.

This happened to us when someone rang up to inquire about our gas and despite never agreeing to a switch, were switched anyway. My incandescent phone call to that company is probably on some customer rant hall of fame, if it was recorded. This actually had a happy ending because in being switched back to our old “supply” they forgot to bill us for a winter’s worth of gas central heating.

How Tumblr regains consumer confidence will be interesting to see. Downtimes tend to breed more negativity, such as power user Anthony De Rosa’s rant.Add in an unpopular dashboard redesign and those bumps start to take on rock-like dimensions.

As for the consumer, some situations you have no control over and some you hold all the aces. What you can control is how you react. Don’t be the social media bore that uses their broadcast capability to publicise every minor stumble along the customer service road.

This post originally appeared as Tumblr takes a Tumble on Hard Refresh. Some rights may be reserved by the blog's administrators, and the post's author.

Blog Comment Moderation Tips

nicwirtz — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 12:00:59 +0000

The beauty of comments on blog posts is that you never know what reaction you will receive, anything can kick off a storm.

Any single comment or post or tweet can provoke a reaction. A perfect example of this comes from this post, where perceived inappropriate use of language detracts from a great cause.

Disclosure – I know the people that run the blog and commented on the post in question.
I do not think that using “retard” in that context should cause offense. This is someone poking fun at himself; the person in question has worked in web design for many years and would consider it an entirely appropriate term.

Obviously, others do not; the problem here is that one word can detract from a mission worth lauding – making Central America better.

Today we are going to look at examples of when you might consider editing a comment. The two house rules in place are that all posts should be constructive and that excessive profanity will be moderated.

If there was too much profanity used in a comment we would edit in this form –

[Moderated] profanity removed [/moderated] – team member name.

Blogchat thought that asking for a resubmission of a comment works here. I think this is fine for low volume comments but not practical if you are wading through hundreds of comments.

The second example is when a comment is meandering off-topic, edit out the bits that do not fit the topic or use a post that is on topic to draw a line under those that are not, to guide commentators back on-topic.

Blah blah blah

[Moderated] please remember to stay on-topic [/moderated] – team member name. Or:

[Moderated] guys, person x makes a great point about…..what do you think? [/moderated] – team member name.

Sometimes when passions run high, someone might say something inappropriate. If the rest of their comment is constructive, in my opinion it’s acceptable to edit out those that are not.

[Snip] $#@!!! [/snip] blah blah blah.

Lastly, editing posts and adding humorous comments can serve to lighten a situation, humanize an anonymous or newly formed team and highlight valuable community members. This is especially true where the presence of a community team is not highly established but care must be taken as this is a very fine line to walk. Especially in a niche community.

I have Rick Rolled many trolls, I find linking to music that might pass on a message works, as can using memes or popular cultural references.

Think of your audience, chances are you can find something that would be appropriate and/or amuse them.

Of course if you edit out everything you might as well delete the comment! However, they can be used as examples for the boundaries you set for your community.

The final examples are yours to do with as you see fit, my advice can be found by highlighting the text underneath.

Example one: Your shop sucks!

My proposed action – delete it, it’s not a constructive comment, (note comment policy would highlight the need to be constructive). I would accept those that suggest replying by asking if the commentator would expand on this observation.

Example two: Your shop sucks! It’s dirty, the customer service is terrible and the manager smells.

My proposed action – You could snip the post about the manager smelling, depends on how thin skinned you are. However, I’d forward this to someone that can do something about it. It’s brutally honest feedback. Someone will make a big fuss about the manager comment, this is immaterial to the fact your shop is dirty and customer service leaves a lot to be desired.

This would be a good post to enter dialogue into, ask why the customer service was terrible? How was the shop dirty?

We hope you enjoyed a brief trip through comment editing.

In the near future, we hope to offer an experiment on comment editing which should prove illuminating and break the site if Ian’s not looking!

This post originally appeared as Blog Comment Moderation Tips on Hard Refresh. Some rights may be reserved by the blog's administrators, and the post's author.

To edit or not to edit…

nicwirtz — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 12:00:51 +0000

A fascinating discussion about negative comments during a recent #blogchat ended up with a question that strikes at bloggers’ hearts – to edit or not to edit.

Moderating comments and community management is such a subjective area that I am all for collective guidelines. Yet, we can only ever use these as guides because each situation is unique.

It is surprising that not many bloggers have house rules on comments. It provides a basis for all discussion on your site. Some were content to make comments go to a moderation queue, something that we have agreed forms a barrier to receiving visitors.

You drive the standards you want to appear on your blog. If you troll or swear, other users will.

When it comes to editing, my background as both a journalist and a forum moderator and later working in community management means I am likely to approach the subject somewhat differently.

There is a school of thought in blogging that posts should not be touched by anyone other than the original writer. I think such an inflexible approach stunts growth as a writer and as a person. Indeed it is somewhat ironic that any form of editing/negative feedback about your writing style would be deemed forbidden. Compare that to how open, honest, transparent we are all meant to be in social media land.

I can see the argument that editing can dilute a blogger’s voice but a good editor should not remove a post’s structure or message. A good editor will enhance a post.

The school of thought that dislikes editing extends to comments on a blog. This is where bloggers differ from community managers. Your average blogger may have cause to remove very few posts per year because of content. A community manager will have to make many daily judgments about comment content.

In some respects the roles are at opposite ends of the spectrum, a community manager is one person or team in charge of upholding whatever standards the company sets. The blogger is one person trying to build a community on their terms. One has structure and a community, the other is looking to create both.

@be3d I would never edit someone’s comments under any circumstances. Keep or remove but lost trust if edit. #blogchat

In my experience, deleting is worse. Users then go into a panic, claim censorship and escalate their concerns, wondering what else you are hiding. This is especially true in a crisis.

Anyone who has spent any time on YouTube knows how bad comments can be. A combination of youth, the herd mentality and video content can all provoke gutter level reaction. Many of those in blogchat chose to ignore the platform as somewhere where comment moderation should take place.

Possibly this was down to the ease at which comments can be turned on or off but I think it’s a mistake to gloss over YouTube. What If you are a vlogger? YouTube and Vimeo are your lifeblood!

Mack Collier made a great point about feedback being a great teaching tool for all departments of your company. Sadly, most companies do not have any internal communications structure to enable the sharing of feedback.

Businesses ignored forums for too long. Around since the 80s, it was all too easy to dismiss them as trolls or non-representative of the silent majority with 10% active and 1% providing the majority of comments.

Now social media has carved out a niche for itself, managers that continue to play ostrich to what their customers say miss a great opportunity to better their department and prospects.

This post originally appeared as To edit or not to edit… on Hard Refresh. Some rights may be reserved by the blog's administrators, and the post's author.

How are Telecoms avoiding Hackgate Blame?

nicwirtz — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 14:49:46 +0000

Hackgate thunders on exposing the chummy links between government, police and media in the UK but there is one sector that has yet to feel any heat.

A multi-billion dollar telecoms industry somehow gets away with having a standard four-digit code for voice mail that allowed private investigators to hack away to their hearts’ content.

This must be the telecoms equivalent of being hacked after the genius intruding into your computer system guessed your password as, “password”.

How has this garnered no fury from the public? Seriously how? This article explains how easily it could happen in the US too.Convenience, read being lazy, is never a good thing around electronic security. Add in backdoors that states want so they can snoop and the cracks in security begin to show.

With a standard four-digit code for an entire network that’s not so much having a backdoor as a motorway leading directly into your house.

In my younger days, I worked at a computer store where the manager’s girlfriend worked for a national telecoms company. It was just after I’d graduated as a journalist and my news antennae was buzzing when she said that the way the mobile carriers had set up in the UK was illegal.

She never did reveal what was illegal and I doubt it was security related but if anything should be against the law, pathetic infrastructure like this should be it.

Monday saw the sad news that the first person to reveal the phone hacking diedin “non-suspicious” circumstances. Sean Hoare, former News of the World journalist told the New York Times about the hacking last year. Hoare’s allegations blew apart the frankly ludicrous compartmentalisation defences that seem to have sprung up, with the amount of arrests now in double figures.

Since our last article on this, Rebekah Brooks has resigned and been arrested, questioned and released. Police then recovered a computer that was dumped near her house in London, apparently belonging to Brook’s husband.

Metropolitan police commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson resigned and was followed by his assistant John Yates who is alleged to have helped disgraced journalist/PR consultant Neil Wallis’s daughter get a job.

Newspapers are full of stories of how many times the main players had dinner together, how Brooks was invited to Prime Minister David Cameron’s birthday party.

To finish off the day, Lulzsec came out of retirement to hack Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers in the UK. They are now sitting on email accounts, including that of Brooks. What they could reveal is anyone’s guess.

For those at the centre it must feel like when the entertainers’ car reaches the centre of the ring then falls apart. The clowns are certainly performing for us “peons”.

This post originally appeared as How are Telecoms avoiding Hackgate Blame? on Hard Refresh. Some rights may be reserved by the blog's administrators, and the post's author.

5 Skills Marketers Can Learn From Snipers

Ian — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 12:00:00 +0000

Your goal as a communicator is to get a message across.

Like snipers, we take aim with our sentiments, craft a perfect situation for delivery, and release. Some of us are great at making the situation perfect, taking all the right factors into account. For others, delivery is more important – placement for the send, waiting for optimum effect… These are tools to be respected, but aren’t always necessary.

Except that they are. We often fall into the trap of thinking like ground-pounders – get the biggest force into the hardest defended camp, and you’ve won. We forget that we’ the communicators, are often the support rather than the main push. How can we learn to be felt, but not always seen? We learn from the best – those for whom delivery at optimum conditions is the definition of success.

1.) The target needs to perceive the message, not the messenger.

When we see snipers in movies, we see them in ghillie suits, hidden from sight. They do their work from a distance, delivering their strike from a place of their choosing, and often disappearing before they can be found after the fact. When a sniper fires, you know what’s happened. But you may not know how, exactly, and that’s part of the job.

We love being famous – communicators get put into the spotlight very often these days. Speakers, journalists, bloggers, marketers; language workers of all stripes get put in the forefront because our presence – our method – is part of the delivery of our message. What we forget sometimes is that the message is the key, not the messenger. In order to counter our own visibility when it’s harmful, we need to learn how to put the message first and fade into the background.

2.) “Just enough” patience is key.

Snipers lie in wait for a target to appear, sometimes for very long periods. Their job is to find the right opportunity, take it, and disappear. However, if a sniper waits too long to deliver the strike, the opportunity can be lost permanently.

We can’t always wait for the perfect conditions – but we can always afford to take the time to assess whether or not the conditions are optimum. If they are close enough, we can easily deliver with confidence. If not, we can make decisions; try to delay for better conditions, or treat the delivery as a learning experience and know – from move one – that we should be recording our experience and learning from it.

3.) Don’t squint, use a blinder.

Scopes on snipers’ rifles only accommodate one eye. When you look through a scope, closing your weak eye causes your dominant eye to dilate – which reduces perception of detail. Leaving both eyes open, and using a neutral-coloured blinder in front of your non-targeting eye means you can focus all your attention where it’s needed, without having the negative effects rashly choosing to close yourself off can cause.

Communicators, similarly, must not shut themselves off from unnecessary input while assessing a target – but do need to choose where their focus goes. Through the scope, to the right details; whether those details are data, previous messages, situation, or whatever else.

4.) Choose your release time (end of the in-breath).

When firing a rifle, snipers need to wait for the moment of optimum release. When breathing in, the rifle rises. When breathing out, it shudders and falls. This is an uncontrollable reaction to the body’s needs – and it’s not a weakness if compensated for. By releasing at the top of the breath, the sniper has a higher degree of stability, and a better sense of where the bullet will go.

We find little ways to compensate for our breathing, as communicators, all the time. We decide to use distraction-free writing environments, we write in the morning before breakfast – or at night before bed. Finding out where your stability is highest and delivering during those times increases the chances of a perfect message drastically.

5.) Squeeze the trigger, don’t yank.

When snipers know they’re set to deliver, they don’t turn to hasty fools immediately. This is a big test of skill and patience – not rushing in the last mile is a huge challenge. So, at the top of the breath, where stability is highest, the skilled shooter pulls gently past the point of activation, and delivers with further confidence.

When you’re working on delivery, rushing is just as destructive as a spent shot. Speaking too quickly for people to understand, or not maximizing the potential of your blog posts amounts to yanking on the trigger; you’re wasting all your preparation in the last second. Write drunk, edit sober doesn’t work unless you take a moment to make sure you’ve done things in the right order; reviewing your work, or keeping your pace in a presentation drastically improve any situation or message you’ve crafted.

You can’t rush success. Similarly, preparation and skilled delivery do not require a sense of urgency or violence.

You’re not out there to bludgeon people to death with your message; you’re there as a communicator to make sure your message is received. Accuracy, consistency, patience and self-control win out. deliver your message, do your work, and move on.

What else can we learn from skilled deliverers?

This post originally appeared as 5 Skills Marketers Can Learn From Snipers on Hard Refresh. Some rights may be reserved by the blog's administrators, and the post's author.

Madeon and Massive Coordination – Media Study

Ian — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 12:00:20 +0000

Ever wished you could listen to 39 different songs in the time it takes to hear 1, to save the hassle of expending 2.43 hours drowning in pop culture? Well, now you can, thanks to a 17-year-old dance music producer from France named Madeon.

Many bloggers talk a lot about re-purposing content.

Using old blog posts to make new ebooks, presentations, webinars, or even authoring entire books. We talk about citation, appropriate credit, and adding value to the work of another by using that work in coordination with your own; being an organizing force on the web.

Sometimes we forget where some of this ideal comes from: the sampling and remixing practices electronica and dace producers have been using for years have bled into other media (such as blogging), are best demonstrated by musicians and producers. Today’s example is a young French producer named Madeon.

In this video, Madeon took 39 of his favorite pop-culture songs and turned them into a remix of epic proportions. An entirely new animal. It’s complex, beautiful and, if you like that kind of thing, some of the best dance music out there. Madeon himself is a 17-year-old

Without further ado, watch this:

Can’t see the video? View Madeon’s Live Remix on YouTube instead.

This post originally appeared as Madeon and Massive Coordination – Media Study on Hard Refresh. Some rights may be reserved by the blog's administrators, and the post's author.

Consequences of the NotW Scandal

nicwirtz — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 21:56:35 +0000

The fallout from the News of the World phone hacking scandal threatens to roll over the media industry like a prime time Nancy Grace meltdown.

Already in its wake has been News International’s withdrawal from seeking the purchase of the 61% of Sky TV it does not own, for now. Former editor Andy Coulson has been arrestedand questioned by police. Despite widespread revulsion at the hacking of the phone during her editorship, Rebekah Wade has resisted calls to resign.

The NI share price took a beating, losing $10 billion in a week before rallying.

Rupert Murdoch had offered a $5 billion buy-back of shares. However, breaking news about the FBI launching an investigationinto the company saw a $1 billion loss in just 10 minutes.

Any time the company thought it had bought itself to regroup and plan after a fortnight of catastrophes appears to have evaporated.

Closing the News of the World will have little effect on business, advertising rates have fallen 25% 2010-11 and it would be a hard sell for such a toxic brand. The Sun on Sunday will no doubt launch in the near future, to what reaction we shall see.

Let’s make no mistake; reforms are coming off the back of this.

British politicians must be licking their lips at a chance to reign in a media that gave them a black eye in 2009. Revelations about MP’s expensesenraged a nation and many lost their seats at the 2010 election, with three subsequently jailed for fraud.

Much of this must be viewed as self-inflicted when you hear that MPs were paying for their moats to be drained at the taxpayer’s expense! More commonly were tales of phantom mortgages, paying off second homes and maintaining huge estates.

Moves are already afoot to change journalism structure. The Press Complaints Commission will be abolished. It has been derided as a toothless tiger and the government is not content with mere gum sucking now. Using this as an example that the press cannot be trusted to self-moderate, the chances of a privacy law have visibly increased.

Britain has had a reputation of being a libel tourist’s dream in recent years. Although motions to halt this are currently winding their way through parliament, the chances are that it will still carry a huge financial penalty to those convicted. Just as the strange copyright laws being considered on both sides of the Atlantic, where the onus is on the individual to prove themselves innocent, this is the UK’s libel law currently.

But it gets worse for News of the World, and News Corp. Much worse.

To continue the legal aspect, former News of the World journalists could have a case to sue the parent company if it is proven they would have difficulty finding jobs because of the stigma of working at the paper. News International has already moved to keep 30 staff members from the “Fabulous” magazine and have indicated they will keep the vast majority of former NotW staffers.

For those advocating brand journalism/reputation management, never have they had a better opportunity to make their case in the industry.

Lower ad revenue combined with fewer companies wishing to advertise, a vicious cycle is brewing for Sunday newspapers.

The consequences of problems with Murdoch’s empire will be far reaching in journalism. They have been one of the few actively seeking an alternative business model. If their strategy was to change, to forego the paywall in favour of regaining market share for instance, the industry as a whole will miss out on its conclusions. Declining advertising revenue and falling sales mean journalism needs to find alternative income streams and quickly.

The fear is this could just be the start. There is the threat of jail for former executives, which could lead to more lurid details being exposed. Inquiries into the relationship between the police and the media on the one hand and the actions of the media on the other are unlikely to be positive experiences.

Prime Minister David Cameron,who has suffered significant political damage due to his close relationship with Wade and Murdoch, revealed both inquiries on July 13. With the additional FBI investigation, the threat to the NI empire is clear.

Perhaps saddest of all will be the continued erosion of trust between public and journalist.

Especially at a time when journalism is in crisis and the public needs the industry to help them wade through the tons of material produced daily.

This post originally appeared as Consequences of the NotW Scandal on Hard Refresh. Some rights may be reserved by the blog's administrators, and the post's author.

Platform Differentiation: Body Builders vs World’s Strongest Man

Ian — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 11:50:00 +0000

When you’re creating a space for yourself – whether it’s examining a niche or creating a vast social network, differentiation is the way to survival. You need to make the unique value proposition for yourself, your business, the benefits you provide, and the package they come in. Unfortunately, the trap many businesses fall into is making platform or differentiation statements without fully determining the implications of the statement.

Consider two entirely different demonstration sports, with a differentiation problem: the wide world of body builders, and the World’s Strongest Man competition.

For both, the job looks simple. Bulk up, get tough, show that off, win fame and prizes.

The problem is, without looking closely, both competitions may look like they require the same actions to win. They don’t.

Body builders need bulk, definition, and the appearance of vast strength. They need to exercise in ways that actually harms their ability to do strong things, for the sake of appearing incredibly well formed. It’s a deception, and a fallacy, to think body builders are actually very strong. Their value proposition is all about appearance; nothing in their mandate says they must actually perform feats based on that apparent strength.

This is not a bad thing. But it can be deceptive.

When looking at the World’s Strongest Man competition, the reverse is not often apparent; these bulky, lumpy men can do amazing things, like pulling airplanes with their teeth, or shunting firetrucks using only a shoulder harness. They work very hard to build active power – but rarely do they create any appearance of strength. Many of these fellows look simply large, rather than intensely strong.

This, also, is not a bad thing. It speaks to their unique value.

Now – apply these considerations to your business, and see how it stacks up. Is your job to produce quality content, or to produce the appearance of quality?

Applied to platforms; if Facebook adopts Circles, or Twitter adopts non-text features, or Google restricts characters… Each loses some of its value proposition.

Putting this kind of thought into your platform building can help you reduce the amount of ambient effort you need to expend on things that are not part of your core value proposition.

This post originally appeared as Platform Differentiation: Body Builders vs World’s Strongest Man on Hard Refresh. Some rights may be reserved by the blog's administrators, and the post's author.

Journalism Repeating the Same Mistake?

nicwirtz — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 12:00:22 +0000

When Twitter threatened to implode following the verdict in the Casey Anthony trial, journalism observers threatened to do so for very different reasons.

Watching the reaction to news filtering through showed just how disjointed journalism has become with the looming spectre of social media tracking its every move. An industry that sat on the sofa and watched its business model die in front of its eyes now appears to have watched too many horror films and is spooked by any unknown sound.

As Poynter visually reported, many newspaper sites lagged behind their Facebook pagesin imparting the news to its audience.

I don’t know about you but I’m getting tired of learning the same lesson each time a major story breaks. Social media beats websites for speed and it is becoming the platform of choice for how people want to receive news.

Facebook and Twitter are maturing; it is not just the early adapter technophiles sitting in front of their computers waiting for the next thing or a pulmonary embolism, whichever comes first.

How could regular news adjust their content to compliment social media rather than repeating information? The answer to that was simplicity in itself and all credit to @ianmrountree for it.

Why don’t media outlets turn Facebook into their page one and make the paper/website an information portal? Breaking news and curation? A solution so brilliant, simple and targeted that it will not happen.

There are some publications that are “digital first” like The Guardian and the Rockville Central is the first newspaper to go Facebook only.The problem is that social media is not yet one platform and it would need to be upgraded to enable better media integration. A cross between Twitter and Tumblr perhaps?

Executives that want reporters to shepherd readers to sites ignores what many in the public want. Not only that but it is exactly the same problem that got newspapers into the mess they are in now.

When you believe you know better than the public on how they prefer to get news, you show breathtaking arrogance. When you cannot find a business model to sell news, asides a pay wall that can always be broken by one person, delivery is the least of your problems.

This post originally appeared as Journalism Repeating the Same Mistake? on Hard Refresh. Some rights may be reserved by the blog's administrators, and the post's author.