Digital Marketing, Media, PR Analysis And Insight – The Future Buzz

That’s your new mission. My friend Eric Friedman and I recently started work on a new side project (what he likes to call a sandbox project). I’ve been toying with the idea for a unique kind of content-based site for quite awhile – yet I kept stopping short of actually executing on it due to time constraints. It’s funny, the premise had been staring me in the face for about four months – only now, as I come to a different crossroads in life (which I’ll share more on when I can) has the idea been boiled to the surface. Eric and I flushed out the idea together and we’re taking a 50/50 stake in the entire process.

Facebook wants to become the one-stop-shop for social networking. They didn’t upset 94% of their users without good reason. I was hoping someone would map out their potential path, and Robert Scoble did just that:

The 7 phases Facebook is going through:

Phase 1. Harvard only.
Phase 2. Harvard+Colleges only.
Phase 3. Harvard+Colleges+Geeks only.
Phase 4. All those above+All People (in the social graph).
Phase 5. All those above+People and businesses in the social graph. (Robert notes Facebook is moving into this phase now)
Phase 6. All those above+People, businesses, and well-known objects in the social graph.
Phase 7. All people, businesses, objects in the social graph.

(Interesting they are moving into phase 5 when there is still much wrong with the site as is, but perhaps this explains why they aren’t bothering to fix the little things – they’re focused on big picture.)

The functions of a traditional, printed community newspaper are to:

• Tell stories that have meaning locally
• Unite small communities
• Provide community calendars and event listings
• Bring hyper-local issues to light
• Provide ads for relevant local businesses

Unfortunately, many hyper local papers are dying off instead of evolving. It doesn’t have to be this way.

What if, in addition to the above mentioned traditional items offered by a print publication, local community news organizations could serve to:

This post is the first in a new category on The Future Buzz called startup ideas. This category will feature content about services, .coms and social networks that could potentially be hits in the marketing/public relations industry and beyond.

The current solution

ProfNet is a great service for the PR industry. If you’re unfamiliar, ProfNet is (quoted from their site):

“An online community of nearly 14,000 professional communicators, ProfNet was created in 1992 to connect reporters easily and quickly with expert sources at no charge. We now provide this same free service to other professionals looking for experts, including:

• Academic Researchers
• Authors/Screenwriters
• Bloggers
• Consultants
• Corporate Researchers
• Financial Analysts
• Government Officials
• Industry Analysts
• Meeting Planners
• PR and Marketing Professionals
• Publishers