Using History to Improve Your Emerging Media Presence

0 Comment(s) | Posted Nov 3, 2009 by Peter Wylie

Peter Wylie

Alan Meckler, CEO of WebMediaBrands, offered advice on growing successful media businesses in a conversation with Business Insider CEO Henry Blodget.

Meckler, whose firm owns Mediabistro.com and Internet.com among other holdings, said his Ph.D in History honed analytic abilities he used to identify business opportunities and to craft sound strategy.  He said his historical perspective “allowed him to look both forward and backward,” to use knowledge of what he experienced previously to guide his future actions.

Meckler also said he wasn’t afraid to abandon pet ideas and move on if they weren’t working.

It got me thinking of the best ways companies can apply the historical lens to their social media practice.  The rapid changes that occur in emerging media sometimes can lead to focusing too much on the present and near-term future, while neglecting application of prior learning to long-term goal development.  Here are three practices I think can help instill Meckler’s advice in social media development.

1)     Hate to fail, but don’t be afraid to – Meckler mentioned his Internet bets paid off because he was not afraid to take risks and experiment. He said two of his ideas or plans failed for every one that was even marginally successful.  Experiment and experiment some more, don’t get wed to ideas that aren’t working.  Fail fast, fail cheap.

2)     Set benchmarks that don’t dwell on day-to-day activities – The speed of social communication and emerging media development can cause expectations of the growth and trajectory of your program to become unreasonable. Building a meaningful presence and engaging through social media takes time and effort, so set goals that reflect the true nature of the process.

3)     Identify your biggest success and biggest failure of the past month – Meckler’s use of his historical training to draw actionable insight out of past experience is crucial for developing a social media presence that constantly improves.  Pausing on the 1^st of the month to consider both failure and success from the past month is conducive to producing better results. Being honest about how you’ve progressed is necessary to continue growing in the right direction and to eliminate poor practices that are wasting your time or hurting your “social brand.”

What did I leave out?  Let me know in a comment or a tweet.

- Pete
@pete_3ships

Filed under: 3Ships Helpful Hints, Emerging Media, Start-Ups