tackling social media at the economist

Social media on Economist.com

Ben EdwardsPublisher, Economist.com

Mass media is adopting social media

Community Content

Commentson articles

Reader forums Reader blogs File sharing

Nytimes.com no no no no

Washingtonpost.com yes yes no no

Telegraph.co.uk yes yes no no

Guardian.co.uk yes* yes no no

Forbes.com no no no no

Time.com no no no no

WSJ.com yes** yes no no

Economist.com no no no no

USAToday.com yes yes yes yes

Techcrunch.com yes yes no no

Technorati.com yes yes yes no

Digg.com yes no no no

*but only on “Comment is Free”** but only on “Opinion Journal”

How is The Economist adopting social media?

Develop via the familiar channel for interaction: Letters to the Editor

Letters provide a development path that is consistent with our readers’ expectations about the brand

Debate?

Debate

Blog CMS limits social-media integration

Deploy

• Widget-based• Platform-agnostic• Modular (reactions, discovery, recommendations,

profiling, reputation management)

USAToday.com: community news

Plan for sequenced development: one-year roadmap

Reader interaction with content

Reader interaction with reader

Launch a publisher’s blog

Co-develop with readers/customers

Economist.com: next steps

Strategy