While this analysis suggests that many editors may not be making the best use of Twitter, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are not effective at social media in general. As with other business-to-business content creators these days, there are few trade press editors who don’t have—and at least occasionally use—a Twitter account. The obvious promotional benefits of this social media tool have led most trade publishers to insist, rightly, that their editors use it. But how many use Twitter not just for promotion, but for its most valuable benefit, social engagement? Curatorial. Editor. MORE >>

Conley is best known, however, for his subsequent work, starting in 2004, as a consultant and blogger. Paul Conley. In the trade magazine business, not generally known for early adoption of new-media developments, Paul Conley is something of an anomaly. He is, as he puts it, “hypersensitive to how new technology opens up opportunities in old worlds.” He ” He was among the first in the trade press to recognize the significance of social media. As early as 1996, not long after the birth of the World Wide Web, he founded a business-to-business internet news service. MORE >>

But you owe it to guest bloggers to show off their work in the best possible light by cleaning up obvious writing goofs. There’s wide agreement in the blogging world about the benefits of guest posts, both for the guest blogger and the blog owner. There seems to be less consensus, however, about the logical next question: If you use guest posts, should you edit them? In a way, I’m asking a trick question. As I explain below, the moment you accept an article, you’ve already started to edit it. Not to finish the job would do a disservice both to your guest blogger and to yourself. Tidy up. MORE >>

The distinctions Scripps wants to draw get even more muddled when the policy gets into best practices. If you need any confirmation that legacy publishers just don’t get social media, give the new social media policy from E.W. Scripps a glance. As summarized by Jay Rosen, the message Scripps is sending to its employees is. Be afraid. Be very, very afraid. Got it? Now go out there and kick some social media ass.”. In effect, it drains the life out of both. But Scripps talks not about corporate or branded accounts, but about  professional ones. If you’re a sports writer, no problem, right? MORE >>

For a better-informed handle on whether your content is best of show, try a “Like-Item Analysis.” For most B2B publishers, electronically delivered news content is becoming an increasingly important part of their output. The potential rewards are substantial. In theory, any B2B e-news package consistently delivering relevant, high-enterprise, fast-paced, exclusive content should dominate its competitive space. But the evidence suggests that few if any e-news staffs are up to this challenge. What accounts for this poor showing? Lack of enterprise. Longwinded sentences. Insufficient links. MORE >>