Spanfeller, McCurdy Discuss Digital Growth
By Heather Fletcher
Digital and print are different beasts and legacy brands often make the mistake of thinking of digital as merely an extension of print, says Jim Spanfeller, president and CEO of New York-based Spanfeller Media.
Spanfeller, one of the chief architects of Forbes.com‘s success, spoke Tuesday morning during the “Special Event: All About Growth” session at the Publishing Business Conference & Expo in New York. He was joined by panelist Charles G. McCurdy, chairman and CEO of Locust Valley, N.Y.-based Apprise Media.
“You’ve got to think of a new medium as a new medium,” Spanfeller says.
When he began work on Forbes.com a decade ago, he was fortunate that the Forbes family thought of the print publication and the nascent Forbes.com as separate entities. “We were in a different building, as a matter of fact,” he says.
From 2001 to 2010, almost all of the brand’s growth has been digital, Spanfeller says. At 20 million visitors, Forbes.com has four times the readership of the print publication, he says. Readership and revenue for Forbes.com now leads that of print, he says.
On its path from 500,000 hits to 20 million visits, Forbes.com “actually saw the quality of our audience increase,” he says.
Not only to readers treat digital differently—by consuming content in a non-linear fashion, rather than reading a magazine front-to-back—but advertisers treat the channels differently, as well, both agree.
“Your hub is not defined by you, it’s defined by your users,” Spanfeller says.
McCurdy says, for instance, one of the mistakes he made at Canon was presenting a digital publication to the overlap of trade show attendees and print readers. It flopped, because advertisers wanted to be able to target segments. Once the company provided that option, profits followed.
Forbes.com would sell campaigns, sometimes to a specific company, Spanfeller says. With specific content for targeted audiences, Spanfeller says advertising on Forbes.com helped Accenture do business with 12 out of the 20 companies Accenture was trying to reach.
There’s still a digital frontier left to conquer, Spanfeller says. The online content that remains to be optimized is most of the major offline verticals, he says.
Publishing Business Conference Social Media Sweepstakes Winners
Congratulations to the Publishing Business Conference & Expo Social Media Sweepstakes Winners:
Kelley Allen
Larry Rosen
Dan Kok
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Seven Reasons to Use Social Media
Sundeep Kapur, author of the online book, www.emailyogi.com will be leading the Social Media Workshop for Publishers, which takes place Wednesday, April 6 from 8:30 to noon at the Publishing Business Conference & Expo. Kapur will be presenting on how you can integrate social media into your marketing mix. In this article, he highlights seven good reasons to use social media.
- You use social media to increase your outreach. Pick a few channels and stay focused to drive ‘growth’ metrics. Perhaps you are looking to find more people or raise awareness. List what you want to do and then measure that metric month over month.
- You use social media to let your consumer know more about your organization. That way if the consumer is in the market for a particular product or service you want to make sure that they are aware of what your organization has to offer.
- You use social media to know more about your consumer. You do this by listening to conversations, engaging the consumer in a dialogue, and constantly seeking feedback.
- You use social media to build a relationship. You do this by staying in touch with the consumer and not just trying to close the sale. You use social media for customer service, feedback, answering questions & getting personal.
- You use social media to go viral. If you speak tactfully and offer value on your social media channels your consumer will share what you offer with others. Keep thinking of ways to engage your consumers in a dialogue – answer their question, solicit their opinion, & make it easy for them to share.
- You use social media to cut costs. There are dozens of things you can do to begin cutting costs from your traditional marketing channels through judicious application of social media. This is an absolute requirement to drive social media success.
- You use social media to drive revenue. It is easier to measure your success in the digital world and the impact of social media can be measured easily. Pick a few programs and then use social media to try and sell those programs within your organization.You have to save money, and drive revenue to continue any marketing program. Social media is no exception.
Join Kapur on April 6 from 8.30 a.m. to noon as he discusses effective ways to leverage social media into your publishing business. Here is a detailed agenda – http://www.publishingbusiness.com/conference-info/speakers/?id=111
The Social Media Workshop is included in a full conference pass. Alternately, a pass to the session can be purchased separately. Click here to register.
Do You Know the Hottest Trends in Mobile?
People looking for information about mobile marketing, media and commerce turn to The Mobile Marketer, the online newsletter run by Mickey Alam Khan. Khan, who also is editor-in-chief of Mobile Commerce Daily and luxury marketing staple Luxury Daily, will be moderating the Mobile Strategy Summit for Magazine Publishers at the Publishing Business Conference & Expo.
A recent article in the newsletter concerns the hottest trends in mobile right now; another which caught our eye outlines the value of location-based marketing. Both topics will be “on the dais” at the strategy summit, which takes place Tuesday, April 5 from 2:30 to 5:00 p.m. Don’t miss this gathering of experts; Kahn will be joined by a number of industry thought leaders to discuss a range of subjects, from the mobile market to entry barriers and how to overcome them, technology and workflow requirements, content opportunities, best practices, business and pricing strategies and more.
To register for the conference, click here.
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