Think Social Networking is a ‘Trend’?

Ft. Hard Knox WebWarriors know that we usually steer clear of MMO (Making Money Online) posts, here…not because there’s anything wrong with that (we ARE free-market capitalists, after all), but because there are already enough sites on the line covering MMO, whereas our key focus is on helping conservative activists become more effective online.

That being said, however, I heard this young man on Fox and Friends this morning, and thought several of his ideas about the current state and future of the internet, new media, and social networking are also very appropo to what we’re doing here. Gary Vaynerchuk is the owner of Wine Library, a project in which he took his family’s business online and the author of _blank">Crush it! Why NOW is the time to Cash in on Your Passion. The following is a video interview he did for BigThink.com.

Also see: Three New-Media Lessons from Gary Vaynerchuk

 

(Hat-Tip Mike’s Writing Workshop)

 

Calling all Bloggers

Today, and this coming weekend, I will begin the real push for promoting and growing Blog News Co-op. To this point I have mentioned the site to a few friends and blog acquaintances. As I finish some behind the scenes work it is time to start promoting in earnest.

Let me pull some “background” and “needs” from two earlier posts:

Bloggers should be a natural resource. Why?

• There are thousands of us. We are in every part of the country and many parts of the world.
• We have a wide spectrum of backgrounds, interests, and areas of expertise.
• While nearly all bloggers work at something other than blogging for their 9-5, not all 9-5’s take place from 9-5, if you know what I mean.
• One thing that most bloggers have in common is that they like to write. That doesn’t make us all good writers, but it’s a start.
• If all goes according to plan (once there is more of a plan than what exists now) we will be able to cover a wide range of topics, stories, geographic areas, and more.

and

Many things are needed, but a few stand out.

1. More than anything we need writers to submit original articles for use by other bloggers. If you have a story that you are interested in sharing be sure to sign up for an account and submit your article.
2. Editors. We would like to identify some authors who are willing to help polish and finalize submitted works.
3. Researchers, fact-checkers, photographers, illustrators, anything and everything that will help us find, follow, and report the stories of interest to other bloggers and readers.
4. Starting out I would like to find someone who is willing to create a more appropriate image for the top of the page.
5. I would also be helpful to hear the ideas that you might have. Please leave your comments and let me know what we need to do, and how we can do it!

Oh yeah, spread the word.

 

Live Podcast, 10:30 PM CST

 

A Right Way and a Wrong Way to ‘Do New Media’

Eric Odom has a good post over at the #dontgo Movement, describing the current conflict between the Republican establishment and the center-right blogosphere. Basically, the Republicans want to control the message and the bloggers won’t be controlled. Odom also has some great advice for how state-level Republican groups can avoid this problem in the future. Here’s an excerpt:

I believe that it can be seen as innocent to misunderstand something such as new media, but I also believe that if you refuse to admit you lack the understanding, and instead assert yourself king of the realm, you FAIL.

As you can see, the Virginia GOP establishment, along with several key GOP insiders, have committed the ultimate new media sin. They did this by attempting to inject themselves into the Virginia blogosphere as a dominate resource that, according to them, will be the “ONLY major Republican blog in all of Virginia”.

[...]

When pitching yourselves as “A project of the Republican Professionals Network”, you should probably be professional enough to consult with actual bloggers to ensure you know the following.

1) A site built by Yahoo Hosting is not ground breaking in new media. In fact, it’s rather archaic.
2) A site with no RSS feeds that claims to be a “blog”… really?
3) A “Helpful Links” page that doesn’t link to a single Virginia blog is not really helping your pledge of being a new media source
4) If you’re going to ask me to volunteer, perhaps you should tell me what I’m volunteering for, and what I can do to help.
5) You should really have a phone number somewhere on your website
6) Admit you were wrong, get over it, and move on

Nuff said…