Entrepreneurial journalists need to be focused on social media in every facet of their businesses, writes Steve Buttry.
Buttry, who is director of community engagement at TBD.com, highlights seven services (Twitter and YouTube make the list twice) that any newsroom can use to support content, distribution and monetization goals.
Monetization, Buttry writes, has not been a social media success story for journalists yet, but he argues that it could be:
“Of course, making money with social media is not strictly a hypothetical opportunity. Dell has shown the potential for multi-million-dollar opportunities using Twitter. Real estate agents, a traditional but declining source of revenue for news organizations, are exploring the possibilities with listings and other marketing efforts on Twitter. Journalism entrepreneurs who develop effective social media services for businesses will diversify their revenue streams.”
One could argue it is too soon for newsrooms to generate revenue directly from social media channels. Most are still trying to figure out the marketing, content gathering and news distribution aspects, as Buttry notes. But, the discussion highlights the continued flattening of responsibilities in the news industry. Content, distribution and marketing are now often merged in the digital newsroom, and for many smaller or start-up operations, revenue concerns may be as well.
