Future perfect: social media stratgies for publishers

Future perfect: Social media strategies for STM publishers Andrew Spong http://twitter.com/andrewspong Issue 1 (March 2009)

Notes on Issue 1
This is a living slide set, and will be updated over time.
This first issue is a text-only release focusing on describing concepts verbally rather than visually. I will attend to this in later issues, but please view this as a ground-clearing exercise.
Issue 1 focuses on STM (sci-tech-med) peer-review journals and books. I will broaden the focus of this presentation in future issues.

What is social media?

What is social media? (The ‘what’)
Social media is a collective term describing an aggregation of internet and mobile-based tools, and the uses to which they are put in the sharing, discussion and redistribution of information
Social media is primarily associated with user-created content rather than commercially-created content

What is social media? (The ‘how’)
Social media utilizes technology and telecommunications to facilitate user interaction via text, images, video and audio.
Exchanges seldom contain embedded content, but link to content elsewhere.

What is social media? (The ‘who’)
Social media can be used effectively for professional as well as leisure purposes
It is not a contradiction in terms for STM publishers to think of social media as a driver of professional as well as leisure-driven interactions
Do not mistake informality for irrelevance: social network is facilitating fellowship between professional peers

What benefits can social media offer?
Reach – global, instant, growing
Access – interaction with targeted users who communicate with you by choice
Community – specialists, generalists, at all levels

What benefits can social media offer?
Connection – self-scaling: nodes are joined up by cross-network activity aggregators
Speed – mass media can’t compete. Cf current Twitter coverage of world events.
Cost – more often than not, the value is primarily inherent within the concept. Develop a space or tools that enhance user experience: users will bring the content

Journals

Why should STM journal publishers be interested in social media?
1998 – Web 1.0 . STM publishers migrate their journal subscription print businesses online.
All elements of the publisher-centric model remain valid as there are too many technical barriers to entry

2008 – Web 2.0 . In principle: MS management, editing, layout, financials and access can be co-ordinated by anyone. Of the remaining functions:
Registration , distribution and archiving can now be accomplished by institutional repositories, digital archives and subject-based repositories.
Validation by means of the co-ordination of effective peer-review is where scholarly publishing still excels.
STM publishers need to leverage familiarity and add convenience

Traditionally, STM publishers’ customers have also been their content providers.
The enduring validity of the model is being challenged as institutional users drive the professional adoption of social media compared to corporate and government sectors.
As a consequence, growth potential for STM content may shift from institutional / corporate spaces into individual professional / professional P2P spaces

Why should STM publishers be interested in social media?
STM publishers run the risk of disintermediation from the publication process if they ignore the potential of social media
STM publishers need to be aware of the fact that societies are looking to them to manage the [inte/mi]gration of/to social media

When search engines fail them, the first choice of
68% of healthcare professionals
64% of scientists
is to seek advice from their peers (Source: Manhattan Research)
They now have instant access to a global community of professionals to crowdsource answers from.
STM publishers need to manage to lead the ‘eminence vs. evidence’ debate with regard to the quality of information that is being redistributed

What should STM journal publishers do?
STM publishers invented social media.
Acknowledge this.
Understand its importance to your business.
Demonstrate its truth-value to your customers.
Then: print-driven social media - P-R paper and response; letters to the editor. 3 months +
Now: e-driven social media - online tools, profiles, professional communities. 15 minutes

What should STM journal publishers do?
Relationships are at the heart of the interactions that drive social media.
STM publishers nurture these relationships on behalf of the societies they represent.
The unique benefits STM publishers provide need to be restated in order to foreground their enduring relevance and validity, and to raise their proponents’ visibility
STM publishers need to monetize their services and leverage these values in novel ways to develop new revenue streams and secure existing relationships .

What can I do as an STM professional to play a part in effecting this change?
Register consistent on the social networks of your choice. Consider LinkedIn, Twitter, SlideShare, Stumble Upon as starting points.
Find interesting professionals to follow using resources such as Twellow and Omnee
Seek inspiration from other verticals and study their business models
Use your professional abilities to answer questions you encounter within the social networks you use
Consider starting a professional blog
Listen a lot; say a little
Protect your professional integrity

Google ‘medical ebooks’… …now look at the top results
It is harder to find pay-for content sites selling STM ebooks than it is to find pirate sites offering registration-free downloads of full-text STM book content
Paying for content is now an option for users, not a necessity
Whilst this does not make it any less illegal, ‘ three clicks from free ’ (search, verify and download) is a reality

Content repackagers
Content repackagers favour established works (i.e. 2 nd editions on) with proven histories
Content repackagers look to publishers to help distribute content; it is not a given that this is a STM publisher’s strength in an emerging channel
Content repackagers promote most publishers’ competitors’ content too, thereby diluting the brand integrity of individual STM colophons.

Questions STM publishers may want to ask themselves re. content resellers
How confident am I that content resellers share my goals as an STM content provider?
Am I satisfied that content resellers understand and effectively promote the unique benefits that STM content offers?
Is there a lack of differentiation within content reseller channels that could diminish the integrity of my STM brands?

Book vs. ebook vs. content
The influence of print memes on the collective consciousness in validating content-confining concept of ‘pages’, ‘impressions’ etc is unraveling
Is the ebook the right setting for the STM content you are currently publishing within the ebook format?
In view of its often highly specialised readership, would your ebook content have a greater utility for your readership within their workflow solutions?
Do STM publishers need to decouple the colophon from the concept?

There is good news… …if you are willing to hear it:

Content is still king
… but STM publishers’ sales models are at risk of being deposed by emerging patterns of consumer behaviour
STM publishers’ content is still highly prized, but STM publishers need to do a much better job of understanding, discussing and serving their users’ emerging needs in the W20 environment

W1.0 – protect content; restrict usage 
W2.0 – promote content; facilitate access 
STM publishers need to redefine the coming of this paradigm shift an opportunity not a threat
Whilst continuing to serve the needs of, and adding value to, consortia and corporate customers, STM publishers must find ways of leveraging new business models that take down barriers to access for individuals

Invisibility is equivalent to irrelevance
Consider affording individual users access to full text ebook content in its entirety on a zero-cost basis
Optimize the potential to monetize interactions around this redistribution:
Consider how you can make the ‘Freemium’ model can work for you
Link to an option to buy a print copy and other relevant titles
Offer discount codes to similar titles via your/partner websites
Maximize relevant advertising and sponsorship opportunities
Put up social media links to build a community of brand advocates
Provide tools, user benefits and community privileges that users may be prepared to pay a premium for
Consider a ‘try before you buy’ PayPal/ChipIn option
Focus at all times on enhancing your users’ experience. Listen to them. Learn from them

Consumers are thinking differently STM publishers need to do the same Then Now

Comments?
http://stwem.com
http://twitter.com/andrewspong

Future perfect: social media stratgies for publishers

by Andrew Spong on Mar 05, 2009

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