SIIA Digital Discourse

The best place to get answers to all your specialized information questions is at the SIPA 2013 Conference, June 5-7, at the Capital Hilton in Washington, D.C. But until then, here are some answers to questions that have come through my office.

How do I get on the SIPA Online Forum?
Use this link and sign up for the Marketing Forum. Recent inquiries have concerned email list hygiene, meeting space in Chicago, finding freelance people and junior sales staff, and doing surveys. This is a members-only benefit.

With all the options for marketing online, how does a small business get it all done?
From an interview on the Ten Golden Rules site with Jay Berkowitz:
Basically…create a blog and do that every week or 2-3 times a week. These blog articles only have to be 2-300 words per post. Just answer the top 10 questions you get asked all the time. It doesn’t have to be some innovative thing, just answer the questions people are asking you. Those will start coming up in the search engines. And then from that article, you can put a short update up on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ and link back to that original article. A lot of people are worried that they don’t have time [for social media]. But really, if you just do those basic things and write those articles, get them on your website and then create a short summary of the highlight of that article, and then copy that into Facebook and Twitter and Google+, that will bring the traffic back to your website.

Does SIPA have a comprehensive publishers liability insurance for its members?
AXIS PRO is pleased to partner with SIPA to offer their members a comprehensive publisher liability insurance program with very broad coverage at extremely attractive rates – which includes a 10% credit for SIPA members in good standing. With AXIS PRO, you are covered by the leading underwriter of media liability insurance in the world. From publishing to broadcasting to cyber liability, AXIS PRO underwriters have unmatched experience in the world of media insurance. For more information email Karen Baldwin or call (203) 426-1900.

In promoting webinars, should you market the topic or the speaker?
From Leslie Davidson’s blog on Davidson Direct:
I’ve found that when marketing conferences, it’s not necessarily the speakers that will draw the most registrants. Especially with webinars, topic is king. You can have the best speaker in the world, but if you don’t have a topic that resonates with your audience, it’s unlikely that they’ll register for the webinar. With live conferences, it’s a little different mainly because you have so many topics and speakers. More than likely, you’re going to have topics that some people are interested and others not, but if you’ve got enough for people to get a good balance of information, that will work…

Can advisory panelists for your publications be sued? Are advisory panelists liable in any way?
Chad Bowman from Levine Sullivan Koch & Schulz:
[On the first…] Yes, anybody can be sued for anything. Are they often sued for published content? No, I don’t think so. After a decade years of defending media cases, I am not aware of a single case in which a publication’s advisory panelist was named in a claim arising from published content.
[On the second…] That’s the key question, and unfortunately not one I can answer in the abstract for two reasons. First, the answer likely involves organizational and business law questions that fall outside our area of expertise as media litigators (and that might vary by state). Second, I am not sure what the liability concerns might be for the particular potential board member, or what the situation is in the specific relationship. If the concern is defamation liability for something published by the publisher, defamation liability generally cannot be imposed without either individual fault or a legal responsibility for the person at fault (such as a publisher’s responsibility for an employee’s publications). If the publisher needs a liability analysis in order to have an informed discussion with the potential board member about potential risk, it would be advisable for the publisher to talk to its business lawyer
(SIPA members are entitled to two free hours of legal consultation with Levine Sullivan…)

And finally, what’s the best Correction you’ve seen lately?
I’m glad you asked. Check out this one. The mistake involves a newspaper turning “30 sows and pigs” into “30,000 pigs.” An honest mistake.

Ronn Levine began his career as a reporter for The Washington Post and has won numerous writing and publications awards since. Most recently, he spent 12 years at the Newspaper Association of America covering a variety of topics before joining SIPA in 2009 as managing editor. Follow Ronn on Twitter at @SIPAOnline