I just saw the following tweet in my Twitter stream.
For those of you who does not know SCMP stands for “South China Morning Post” the only major English newspaper left in Hong Kong.
Does SCMP realize they are a news agency. If there is a story about police in China arresting people carrying GPS devices as spy, then we want to know about it now, today. We don’t need a preview of “story to come tomorrow” so you can hope to sell more newspaper tomorrow.
Hello Vinko,Thanks for your comments and thanks for following us on Twitter. With regard to your question: Do businesses get social networks?1. There are four people on the scmp888 Twitter account. They are the members of the multimedia team, which is responsible for producing audio and video. So by “business”, I take your question to mean: do the four members of the multimedia team get social networks? As far as my understanding goes, social media is about the conversation and that's how we use social media tools such as Twitter.2. A number of people are using Twitter and other social tools to achieve a business objective. For us it's about highlighting our multimedia content and yes, since part of our business is selling newspapers, to also promote the newspaper.3. If you would like to have a conversation with us on Twitter, simply @reply us @scmp888. Michael
I am glad to see that SCMP does show signs that they understand this beast called social media.They apparently have a grasp for trying to engage its readers and develop conversations with them, through blogs and through Twitter.Michael,When I refer to “Business” I am not referring to your team, since you are tweeting with SCMP's name I am presuming all tweets are representative of SCMP and to benefit its business. So, please do not take my comments personal, but do ask, whether SCMP has a corporate strategy for using social networks like Twitter.Aside from using it as a chat room how does SCMP intend to engage its readers?PS: I guess, for you personally, you have engaged me in a conversation.
it's good to read Michael from SCMP responding to this post. i'm also interested in learning SCMP's strategies in social media, especially SCMP is such a traditional media with long history in hong kong.
Vinko,The multimedia team consists of myself (Michael Logan), James Moore, Edwin Lee and Richard Pyne. We don't have a strategy per se, other than to use social media tools such as Twitter, YouTube etc to talk about our audio and video work and engage our audience. I don't want to complicate things by articulating a “corporate strategy”. I prefer to keep things simple. Like others on Twitter, I'm just talking about the things I find interesting. I just happen to be a guy that works at the Post and my interests revolve around news, Hong Kong, multimedia etc.Michael
Michael,Thank you for the clarification of your intentions and purchase of your Twitter account, but if you team's goal is to share “… things I find interesting…”, then may I suggest your team creates a new “group” Twitter account where you do what you had suggested, and not confuse the readers and Tweeples that you are speaking for SCMP.This is because, no matter how good you intentions are, using a Twitter account with SCMP's name, will imply you are acting on a SCMP social media strategy, and will reflect on SCMP as a company and news service.
Vinko,Thanks for the suggestion. We are acting on behalf of and speak for the SCMP multimedia team. Our Twitter bio reads: Audio and Video from the South China Morning Post; follow us to hear about upcoming projects and to submit questions for celebrity interviews.In addition, our Twitter link points back to our audio and video archieve. I didn't realise there was some confusion. Michael
That's exactly what I mean. The Twitter account @SCMP888 is speaking on behalf of SCMP, whether it is a team within SCMP or the entire newspaper. You are speaking for SCMP, since you are using the SCMP logo and SCMP name.Your Twitter biography, “Audio and Video from the South China Morning Post; follow us to hear about upcoming projects and to submit questions for celebrity interviews”, does not reflect what you previously said you and your team are using this Twitter account for. You had told us that it was for “… things I find interesting…”, and said you want to “… keep things simple…”, hence you “… don't have a strategy per se.”Now you are telling us that a team with SCMP is using social media tool without directions or corporate strategies, speaking of “…. things I find interesting…” by any members of the team who have access to the account.You may want to modify your Twitter biography so that there is a disclaimer stating “all tweets are the opinions of the individuals of the SCMP multimedia team and has nothing to do with the newspaper, SCMP”.To clarify a point you made previously, “… keep things simple. Like others on Twitter”, only individuals using explicitly individual accounts are keeping it simple. They will freely talk about anything on their mind, what they may have for breakfast or the person in line in front of them has BO.You will not see business account holders like @TheCNNWire @BreakingNewsOn @TechGlance @Boxee @Mashable @CityRoom @TechCrunch @NYTimes use Twitter so casually as you thought to.
Rather silly comment. Of course the mainland police could arrest anyone as a spy, GPSdevice-carrying or not…in case you didn't notice, they're called communists!!
Hi LC,Are you misreading my comment regarding SCMP's actions? We are not talking about the validity of the story SCMP claims to have. We are questioning the fact that SCMP is announcing that they will have such a story a day before the printed paper is to be released.