Ed Walker: “We Are Living in the Golden Age of Stupidity”
Engaging with the community of your website is not something new anymore, but we are still are learning from our mistakes. What are the main ways to get your readers and the community you serve involved in your website was the main topic of today’s discussion at Hotel Brufani. Five speakers coming from different backgrounds took part in the panel: Paola Banomo, head of Online Services Vodafone Italia; Peter Gomez, Il Fatto Quotidiano; Justin Peters, editor Columbia Journalism Review online, Ed Walker, Media Wales and Josh Young, former editor at The Huffington Post.
Besides the usual talks about social media, user-generated content and crowdsourcing, speakers discussed why is so hard for big media organizations to move to successful use of Social Media and new technologies. Why do they ignore the close communication with their audience and how things are going to change. “The most adaptable will survive in the face of change” said Josh Young. Big media organization all over the world will have to establish good relationship with their readers, if they want to keep staying on top.
All speakers agreed that it is not so important what kind of platforms or tools you use, but what your readers want to say and want to read on your website. Good journalism before all is what really makes the difference. “If I have an interesting story, even if I write it on the wall in this room, I will find many people to read it”, said Peter Gomez. Although he admitted that Italy is still far behind in using Social Media and engaging with communities, all visitors were impressed by the number of Facebook fans of Il Fatto Quotidiano – more than 442,600.
“It is extremely important to encourage people to talk on you website, to communicate with each other and to let them feel involved in what you are doing”, said Paola Banomo. Keeping non stop communication with the audience is crucial for every media organization. In the same time users don’t like to be moderated and it is really tricky to teach your readers how to behave. “Who has the responsibility to teach the people how to behave online?” rhetorically asked Paola. Inappropriate behaviour on Social Networks can ruin someone’s image and could expose facts that have been hidden or misreported by mainstream media.
Voting, highlighting and encouraging “good comments” to emerge is a good approach in community management, said Ed Walker. What does he define as a “good comment”, you can read in an interview with him.
