OJR 2007: From MySpace to your space

OJR - Online publishers are wresting with ways to effectively create and manage online communities. At OJR 2007, participants turned to several examples on the Web to discuss content, anonymity and ways to make sure spammers don’t squat in your site’s comment section. Active user communities such as those flourishing on Bakotopia.com and Naplesnews.com illustrate that community networking elements can thrive on hyperlocal sites.OJR participant debated anonymous versus sourced reader comments, as well as ways to engage readers into joining an online community of readers.

Ask an interesting, or better yet, provactive question and you’re likely to introduce interesting user-generated content. But how do you keep your comments above board and free from spam infiltration?

Violinist.com Editor Laurie Niles maintains that integrity by requiring users to register under their own names.

“People behave when they’re using their own name,” she says.

When veteran journalist Mack Reed lauched LAVoice.org, he required names to post stories but left comments open. “It helped to keep people honest if they were posting under their real name,” he says. “The ones that ignored the rule are the ones who came there to cause trouble.”

OJR Editor Robert Niles introduced an important distinction in the degrees of anonymity, especially to guard against impersonization.

“There’s a difference between anonymity to your reader and anonymity to you as the publisher,” he says.

“One of the things I always want to make sure I’m doing on my sites if someone has a real reason to be anonymous, I want to give them a way to contact me. As publishers I want to make real sure we’re guarding against impersonation.”

66% view video online; prefer 15s ads, news, entertainment

MARKET WIRE - Advertising.com, Inc. announced the results of its online video study examining consumer perceptions, usage and response to online video and corresponding advertising. The study leveraged survey data acquired from a sample of 500 respondents over the age of 18, as well as advertising performance data generated from Advertising.com’s video network. The survey was hosted by online market research company InsightExpress.

Survey results indicate that approximately 66% of respondents view streaming video content at least once a week. 44% of video viewers are between the ages of 18 and 34, while 56% are age 35 and older.

The younger demographic is more likely to engage in activities such as watching TV episodes online, creating their own video content and forwarding video clips to friends. The 18-34 demographic also prefers to stream entertainment content such as music videos, television shows and movie trailers, while those age 35 and older are more likely to view news and sports clips. News and entertainment content are the most popular among streamers overall.

With regards to online video advertising, 15-second spots are not only preferred by consumers to TV-length ads but also perform better. End-play rates for 15-second spots are 20% higher than 30-second spots. In addition, when asked what would make video advertising more pleasurable, 66% of consumers ranked “shorter ads than television” as the number one factor.

“It’s fascinating how consumers are integrating streaming video into their old media consumption patterns — like watching TV episodes online,” said Rick Foster, vice president of video advertising products for Advertising.com. “But as the positive consumer response to shorter ads clearly demonstrates, not all the offline rules apply online. We must continue to watch and listen to consumers if we’re to maximize video’s value as an advertising tool.”

USAToday.com redesigned!

Perhaps the new USAToday.com will be the standard for tomorrow’s media websites. To sum up about the personality of the new site:

1. Interactive.
2. Social bookmarking/sharing functions.
3. Personalized.
4. Innovative navigation.

More comments from here.

Here is the quick guide to the overhauled USAToday.com:

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Bigger, better

We know you want to know the biggest story right away. Our new carousel features bigger photos to highlight the biggest news. But we don’t just play one story big. By mousing over the carousel’s thumbnail images, you can quickly see more of the day’s big stories.

Get different takes on the news.

Keeping tabs on the news

Catching up on the news you’ve missed is another reason you come to USATODAY.com. That’s why we’ve created an easy-to-scan column of headlines. Or for more depth, analysis, and a different perspective, you can switch views to read one of our newsroom blogs. You can also keep tabs on what other news organizations are reporting through our “Across the Web” feature of feeds from dozens of other Web sites.

See what others are reading.

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Interested in what your fellow readers are following? When scanning headlines, you can quickly flip the stories to see which are the most popular. It’s a great way to keep up with the latest water cooler chatter.

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We’re strong believers that our stories are the beginnings of a conversation, not the last word. That’s why we’re excited to add comments to every story page. Now when you read an article on USATODAY.com, you can see what others are thinking and join the conversation yourself. We feature the most interesting comments at the top of our main pages.

Tell others which stories are worth reading.

Recommended

Sometimes you’ll come across a story that you want others to know about. That’s what our new “Recommend” button is for. A quick click and you can vote for a story you think others should pay attention to. Then as you surf the site, you’ll see which other stories your fellow readers want you to check out. It’s never been easier to see what everyone is reading.

Learn more about other readers.

Personal space

When you become a member, we automatically establish a personal profile page. As you interact with the USA TODAY community, your comments, recommendations and other contributions are automatically appended to your page. Your profile page includes a place for you to upload photos, write a blog, and the ability to send messages to other users. These pages allow readers to get a better sense of the site’s most active contributors.

Put your stamp on every page.

Avatar

Every one of our pages features a spot just for you: up there in the right-hand corner. That’s where you’ll be notified of messages left by other readers. Make yourself at home. Upload a picture of yourself, a funny icon, or choose from our selection of ready-made avatars.

Upload your photos.

Shutter speed

You’re not just a reader of news. You’re also a news observer and a news maker. So we’re going to be asking you to send us your photos. Whether its photos of dazzling thunderstorms or the latest breaking news, you can be part of covering the story.

Keep tabs on the USATODAY.com community.

Community center

As you contribute to USATODAY.com, you’ll also want to know more about how others are contributing. Our new community blog, “Community Center,” will keep you informed of the latest and greatest comments, user-submitted photos, requests for help with stories, and more. Think of it as gossip that won’t get you into trouble.

Continue to explore using new ways to navigate:

Know where you are and where you’re going.

No more asking for directions

It’s never been easier to find the stories you’re looking for. We’ve overhauled the navigation at the top of every page. Flyout menus show you how content is grouped. And breadcrumbs show you how to get back where you came from. We’ve also placed a site index at the bottom of every section front.

Discover similar stories.

Six degrees of separation

They say everyone is connected to everyone else by just six people. Now you can explore similar connections among stories. Using tags, you can jump from story to story by connections like never before. You can even see all the stories written by any given reporter. Once you start clicking tags, you might never stop.

Now you can find what you’re looking for.

Finding a better search

Sometimes the easiest way to find what you’re looking for is simply to search for it. We’ve overhauled search to make it much easier to use. The results are more accurate, the design is clearer, and now we include photos in our search results!

Reuters to start financial MySpace

The Guardian - Reuters is planning to launch its own version of MySpace this year - though its community website will not be aimed at teenagers. Instead, fund managers, traders and analysts are being targeted.

Reuters hopes to draw from the 70,000 subscribers of its messaging service as a starting point for its foray into the fast-growing sector of community websites.

“You will see us, later in the year, launch a version of MySpace for the financial services community,” said the chief executive, Tom Glocer. “It won’t have the latest hot videos and the ‘why I am into Metallica and the Arctic Monkeys’ blogs. Instead we are going to give our financial services users the ability to post their research or if they are traders, their trading models.”

The website will also be exclusive to Reuters subscribers. “People don’t want to have 100 friend requests from teenage girls in Florida if they are trading the credit derivatives market, but they probably are interested in being able to share research,” said Mr Glocer.

Reuters has been quick to embrace online potential. Last year it posted one of its journalists to Second Life, where he reports on events within the virtual world. The company has sold advertising on the billboards outside its virtual headquarters within Second Life. “I would still put this strongly in the realm of experimentation but it’s a nice controlled experiment that has probably paid for itself 10 times over in marketing,” he said.

Reuters reported yesterday an 8% decline in annual trading profits - to £308m - as it invested in its business. Revenues were £2.56bn, up 4.8% on an underlying basis. Reuters said revenues would increase at least 6% this year.

44% search health info from med websites

eMarketer - Are pharmaceutical companies filling an online health information void?

The volume of online health information presented by pharmaceutical companies may partially be due to patients’ perception that their physicians lack such data, according to a new Illuminas study sponsored by Cisco Systems.

“Physician” was the source named most often by respondents when asked which source they would most likely use to find medical information or health management advice. The study of US adults was fielded in January and February of 2007.

Yet the same study revealed a paucity of primary care providers who actually have a Web site with medical information.

The lack of physician Web sites with medical information may have created an opportunity for pharmaceutical marketers, since many online health seekers use search engines to find what they need.

Despite consumers’ reliance on search engines to locate health information, some marketers are leaving search campaigns to their competitors while concentrating on display ads, according to Jack Barrette, chief development officer for pharmaceutical at Yahoo! This year will see a shift in online ad spending to more search ads, as drug companies look for better direct-marketing results in their Internet budgets.

US Internet users now look online for health information routinely, and the percentage of people who do so has risen for the past three years, according to comScore Media Metrix.

eMarketer senior analyst Lisa Phillips notes that the Internet plays a greater role in consumer healthcare every year.

“Several studies regarding consumer behavior and health and pharmaceutical sites were published in the second half of 2006 by Manhattan Research, Harris Interactive and the Pew Internet & American Life Project, among others,” said Ms. Phillips. “Although the focus and the results varied, all showed more Americans than ever are going online to find information on drugs, medical conditions and health insurance.”

Manhattan Research reported that 116 million US adults used the Internet to find health information in 2006, compared with 41 million in 2001. Some 70 million were looking for pharmaceutical information, and 29.1 million sought additional information after seeing an ad in another medium.