Podcasting- the portable audio revolution

With the universal spread of portable audio players like the iPod came the advent of the “podcast,” cheap audio software similar to weblogging that spread over the Internet and became available for easy download. Podcasts are a sort of amateur radio, and a natural development in the digital revolution of 2.0 media.  Audio content such as interviews about various topics can be distributed in much the same way as written material via blogs. Audio versions of radio shows or the Wall street journal for example, could be sold and transported to portable audio devices. Shows, books, etc could now be listened to whenever and wherever the listener wanted. Audible information could now be portable. Developing a better system for audio file transfer required a new RSS language, which was eventually developed. A new program was developed and synchronized with the iPod, and podcasting as a practice spread like wildfire. Audio files could be transferred directly to portable audio devices in the pockets of every American. It seemed only natural that the trend would grow, considering the massive spread of the practice of blogging before it. The term “podcast” expresses the importance of the iPod and iTunes in spreading the practice of podcasting audibly and visually. The portable aspect of the podcast, and the ability for anyone to be a podcaster are two possible reasons for the popularity of podcasting. People tend to appreciate something as easy as downloading and listening to a subscribed feed rather than searching and reading scattered Internet content. The syndicated feed allows users to keep up to date easily with a podcaster. Podcasting and video-podcasting have grown in popularity and become an essential part of the “2.0 revolution.” Podcasts allow subscribers to have whatever audio content they desire at their fingertips and in their pockets, ready to be called upon whenever the listener decides. This sort of user-control is essential to its success. 

Click Here to learn how to create your own podcast

Marketing 2.0- The Blogging Revolution

Obviously, the media revolution has come to play a large role in the worlds of marketing and communication. It is only natural that as more and more people pay more and more attention to digital material online that companies would have to rearrange strategies to include sectors dedicated solely to information distribution via the web. Society at large places a large important for example on a companies twitter and Facebook pages to gain information about the company. Thus, more attention must be paid to these modes of information control to reach the massive audience in an effective way.  Corporations now use blogs, sometimes controlled by employees, on their own website.  Corporate blogs can allow managerial leaders to keep in touch with both employees and customer satisfaction. It can help the corporation seem more personable and dedicated to fulfilling needs of customers.  Traditional marketing strategies have been replaced by more modern communication modes like SMS texting, with some sort of reward for massive spread.  Masked marketing describes a situation in which information that doesn’t seem to be an advertisement is sent and rumor marketing is a situation where something related to something that may later come out is sent before it comes out. Exclusive invitations are another way. Such a sort can lead to millions of downloads within days. Evangelist customers are enthusiasts for a product who try to spread it amongst other people by blogging and researching. A corporative blog is blog created by an organization by an official worker, showing the mass audience that the worker is transparent.. Blogs are an important trend in advertising, marketing, and public relations as they increase communication and awareness. Blogs have the ability to change and highly affect a business Thus; hundreds of new blogs are registered everyday, up to 18 updates per second. Millions of people buy products because of a comment from the Internet. This sort of power shows that all corporations must adapt to this new marketing strategy, as it is highly effective, more so than any other in this growing digital age.  However, all blogs are not appropriate for a corporation, and must be carefully updated and worked on to be successful. Blogs allow corporations to have proximity to customers, accept and modify feedback, learn about competitors, network, and remain loyal to customers needs. Blogs can be used to introduce a new brand, to test a product, to keep in touch with bosses, to prepare for a special event or to promote a market.  There are many uses, and blogs have become an important staple for the success of a company. 

 

 

Click Here to view “The Editors Blog” of BBC

Click Here to view the “Fastlane Blog” of General Motors

anti-microbial

Last week in Journalism 2.0, we learned about a new topic called “microblogging.” Microblogging is pretty much identical to blogging, but the content is much smaller- like short sentences or links to videos. Twitter is therefore a micro-blog, in that users update their content frequently but usually the content is a few words or a tiny url. Microblogging is a simpler form of blogging. A status update on facebook could be seen as a microblogging method.  The success of twitter proves that people like quick and simple. Social Networking is all about being connected as easily as possible. Also, we looked at the new “timeline” that Mark Zuckerberg is introducing. Timeline is similar to a scrapbook of your life. Theres a coverpage, a section for stories, a section for apps, a section for things you like. Its seemingly a magazine of your life with an interesting organized aesthetic. Just when you think it cant get more complicated- Facebook does it again. Im all for change, but I cant help but get a sort of “big-brother” sense, like my life is being dwindled down to a magazine that anyone can read at any moment. Freaky. 

In the Classroom

Last Week in Journalism 2.0 we continued our discussion of effective means for blogging. I would like to re-cap the most important things I believe are necessary to make a blog successful. First of all- frequent updating. The only blogs I religiously visit, I visit at least 4 times a day as part of the cycle of websites I check everytime I open my laptop. I get angry when they don’t update. So angry that I might stop checking if it continues to lack updates. Next, images. Until pippo said it out loud I never realized how important images are. When I’m scanning a blog, I typically stop and read the post when I see a picture of a celebrity or show that I love. Also, tags. When scanning a website quickly, I can use tags as a guide for what is most important to me and narrow down what I actually read. In the blog world, the aim is to get a loyal following. If you know your audience and write for that set of people, maybe you can get a strong following quickly. Finally, I learned to be discreet. I can outline every detail of an episode of some show, but the readers really only want to hear the important parts. No one wants to read an essay for every single post on your blog. I hope to follow these tips and gain a loyal following.