SXSW Sessions 9 & 10: Quick Notes
by Brian Reich | 13 Mar 2007, 2:00am
My SXSW experience is coming to a close. I haven’t had a chance to post notes and thoughts from the last few panels that I attended. So, here are two quick summaries — with more to follow:
The Rise of Blogebrity
‘Blogging celebrities’ have emerged legitimate media personalities with daily audiences equivalent to a cable show and the ability to drive mainstream interest — or kill it — with a couple of posts. What makes a blogebrity? The panel (moderated by Kyle Bunch of Blogebrity, with Amanda Congdon from ABC News, Henry Copeland of Blogads, Karina Longworth of Netscape, Casey McKinnon of Galacticast and Nick Douglas of Look! Shiny!), which included some real-live blogebrity’s (side note: Amanda looks very different in person than she does online) said that the key to being famous on the web was not the size of your audience but your overall media savvy. When you see bloggers on TV, writing books, being quoted in traditional press — that is when they transcend from online to having “full coverage.”
User Generated Content and Original Editorial: Friend or Foe
In the past few years, online media has embraced user generated content. The volume and influence of user-generated content is growing and editors are trying to figure out how to integrate it effectively with original editorial content. How can you do that? The panel (Moderator Mike Tatum of CNET, Dave Snider of EnemyKite, Will Smith of Maximum PC Magazine, Scott Rafer of MyBlogLog, and Evan Williams of Obvious/Twitter) explained that the overall concept media must adopt is conversation. The benefit is that the quality of the editorial gets better when your informed user base is contributing to the content. Whether they are right or wrong, going through their arguments, reviewing their thought process helps us to think about better ways to do our own editorial job. User generated folks can help to set the tone for the website, set the rules, find their niche and really explore it, etc. The secret sauce is giving the top users, the most committed and insightful special access to editors, special recognition for their contribution, or something that will keep them engaged. Additionally, while editors may be worried about bad contributions, the community very quickly will determine if someone is credible — through comments, or ratings, or similar. When the audience figures out what they like or don’t and if someone who puts up bad information the community usually calls them out and corrects the mistakes.
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: Event Coverage From the Trenches SXSWi
