It wasn't going to take long! Guardianweekly.co.uk has just been relaunched as the Guardian Weekly Global Network. A key part of the new site is a social network, with readers invited to submit a profile, comment on the site's articles and even submit their own articles.
In true social media style, members are featured on the front page of the social network section of the site, with their last comment displayed together with a link to their profile. An interesting innovation is the 'watchlist' where Members can track comments made by other readers. You can also search other members by location and by profession.
There has been a lot of talk about how blogging and web 2.0 are changing the way that news is reported and made. The Guardian have clearly looked at this and recognised the importance of not only engaging readers but also involving them. The site's editor, Mark King, explained, "We want to connect our readers, giving them the opportunity to truly effect change and providing a platform for voices that are often overlooked."
Of course, this is also a strong move from a marketing point of view. After all, people are less likely to surf to other news sites if there is a chance their views will feature on The Guardian's.
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
The Guardian Launch Social Network
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It's a logical progression, and of course newspapers were quite quick in catching onto one of the major survivors of the original dotcom boom and bust - dating websites. They in themselves are a sort of proto social network.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, it could be argued that newspapers have understood the whole community engagement thing for decades, why else would you have a letters page?
Thanks for your comment Lydia. You're right, it's to be expected that the media would be amongst the first of the household brands to adopt social networking.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of the development of the web and the doommongering about the future of the printed press, it's also an important survival move.