Duct Tape Marketing - Latest Comments in The Fail Cow is Getting Ready to Sing

Re: The Fail Cow is Getting Ready to Sing

Atniz — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 21:30:43 -0000

Twitter is increasing used to gain more traffic. So, getting an attractive title with shortened url in 140 words is sufficient to do this work.

Re: The Fail Cow is Getting Ready to Sing

SEO Software — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 19:03:09 -0000

Lots of sensitivity -- apparently you hit a nerve John! I think this is another good example of how many old media outlets have failed to catch the next wave. Even "newer" media outlets like AOL caught the wave late and are struggling big time. Not trying to knock anyone here, just observing that it requires skill and courage to recognize new trends and find effective ways to adapt.

Re: The Fail Cow is Getting Ready to Sing

J. Michael Warner — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 09:52:00 -0000

I think and comments highlight that newspapers as we have known them will soon go the way of dinosaurs.

Re: The Fail Cow is Getting Ready to Sing

ducttape — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 10:33:45 -0000

@dixie et al - this was never an attempt to pick on the author of this story - perhaps it came off that way, but it was always my intention to highlight what slow movement at the top has done to this paper and in some way the entire industry.

Re: The Fail Cow is Getting Ready to Sing

dixie vogel — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 15:51:48 -0000

The word vs. character would have been a mistake by the orignial author, missed by the copy editor. Looks like it has sense been corrected in the online version of the article.

In all fairness, the Star has had repeated rounds of layoffs, so the people there are doing a lot more work with less time to do it. This is what people in print media are dealing with in a widespread way, and not specific to the Star. (Have a friend who works at the Star and another in other print media.)

From my understanding and from working with the Star on a project some time back, they acknowledge the importance of online stuff in a general way, but are old-school in terms of multiple layers of committee-based management who don't seem to get the picture. I wasn't particularly impressed with the "online initiatives" that came from this mix. But nothing happens without management approval and worries over being sued. The freewheeling world of Twitter would probably be terrifying to some of the decision-makers.

So I'd be inclined to shift the responsibilty for missing the social media/online boat upstairs, myself.

Re: The Fail Cow is Getting Ready to Sing

Click and Inc — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 14:52:37 -0000

true that newspapers are going down hill and it's quite sad actually. Good post though. Makes me realize how popular Twitter really is.

Re: The Fail Cow is Getting Ready to Sing

Ryan Martin — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 10:11:22 -0000

I think that this just shows why newspapers are becoming extinct. Especially the ones that are falling behind times. This is a case of a writer in over their head and a lack of accountability on the editors end.

I will say that the Seattle Times is actually pretty active on Twitter, so not all of the newspapers are oblivious.

Re: The Fail Cow is Getting Ready to Sing

web content — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 03:06:33 -0000

It's kinda sad that print media has fallen so far behind the competition just by stubbornly refusing to keep up with the new developments of the times.

Re: The Fail Cow is Getting Ready to Sing

Chris Ford — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 16:51:25 -0000

Maybe you should run a competition for the best 140 word story. Short concise pieces are quite important for successful business development.

Re: The Fail Cow is Getting Ready to Sing

ducttape — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 14:57:35 -0000

@Eric I understand your skepticism of twitter and it's healthy - as with any of these tools it's all about objectives and results - for some they are right for other they are not - but again, it's symptomatic - they were doomed six years ago when they didn't embrace blogging - it's not the individual journalist's fault that her paper is hanging on for dear life, I'm just sad because it didn't have to be that way.

Re: The Fail Cow is Getting Ready to Sing

egoebelbecker — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 14:50:15 -0000

No, I read the whole post. What you described as a "ridiculous puff piece" with what may or may not be a typo -> broken comments systems on website -> dormant twitter account -> this newspaper is doomed.

(No mention of whether or not Star has e-mail accounts or a comments form.)

Newspapers all over the country are hurting and you are wondering there's no one on twitter waiting for you to complain fact checking in a "ridiculous puff piece."

Maybe my skepticism about twitter is showing through (it stills looks like RSS for the attention span deprived to me) but I'd wager that if the Star is doomed, it was doomed long ago and missing the boat on twitter is not the straw that broke the camel's back.

P.S. I don't work for a newspaper. :-)

Re: The Fail Cow is Getting Ready to Sing

ducttape — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 14:39:28 -0000

@Greg - yes I think that's right, but man is that the point of this stuff - most of the new media publications out there are less than skeleton staffs and they are eating their lunch and sucking up all the ad dollars by understanding the power of social media - the big outlets could have remade themselves five years ago and owned that space, but it's probably too late now.

Re: The Fail Cow is Getting Ready to Sing

ducttape — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 14:37:08 -0000

@Nigel - the story said 140 words not characters, but again, that was not the point of this post - read the entire post people

Re: The Fail Cow is Getting Ready to Sing

ducttape — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 14:35:41 -0000

@Eric - maybe you only read 1/3 of this post or I did a lousy job of making my point - this was not about the mistake and feeling smug - I make mistakes daily and am thankful when someone takes the time to point it out (although this was not a typo this was an incorrect fact made twice that was fundamental to the story.)

The only reason I wrote the post was to point out how strikes one, two, and three were symptoms of the much larger problem that exists in this long-time media outlet - and that makes me sad.

Re: The Fail Cow is Getting Ready to Sing

KJ Rodgers — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 14:24:55 -0000

140 words is huge for a micro-blog like Twitter. I think it would be hard for many celebs to creatively find 140 words to randomly input through their short days.

Re: The Fail Cow is Getting Ready to Sing

Yemoonyah — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 14:10:51 -0000

Great post, I like the way you set it up. It has a nice flow to it. You know how to build things. Maybe you were a designer or architect in a former lifetime :-)
Anyway, I think these people just don't know any better because no one ever told them. Most of the people around me have never heard about Twitter, Facebook or even blogs. And if they have they don't get it. I guess it will take a while but eventually they will all have to come around.

Re: The Fail Cow is Getting Ready to Sing

egoebelbecker — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 13:17:05 -0000

Is it possible that it's just a case of poor editing?

Sure, it feels real really good to declare how superior you are to someone else, especially when it comes to the flavor of the month, but maybe the poor guy was thinking "character" and typed "word."

Re: The Fail Cow is Getting Ready to Sing

Greg Turner — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 12:42:06 -0000

I have the impression that most newspapers, these days, are nothing more than a very thin skeleton staff who outsource all the work to contract writers, etc. whom have no loyalty to the newspaper. Hence the lack of any cohesive response to something that effects them so much as does the phenomena of Social Media.

Re: The Fail Cow is Getting Ready to Sing

Mario Sanchez Carrion — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 12:00:45 -0000

Classical meatball sundae... Their Twitter profile says that they are "experimenting" with Twitter. Clearly they are not taking social media seriously and it shows in the mistake you point out. Their loss...