I'm still getting caught up on email and laundry after spending the weekend in New York City at the ASJA conference. But I did want to share a couple of themes that emerged during the conference:
- Video, video, and more video.So many panelists stressed the growing importance of video, both on our own blogs and in assignments for websites. During Personal Pitch, one editor even asked me if I could shoot video to accompany articles (at first I hemmed and hawed, then miraculously, I remembered a video I’d saved on my iPhone and posted for my Facebook friends, which I showed her). What’s so special about video? It gives readers another way to consume content and can help improve SEO. You might see some vblogs here in the future.
- The changing role of the writer.Nowadays most successful writers do a lot more than write. They might promote articles and interact with followers on social media, write tweets and other social media updates for clients, make TV appearances (especially if they live within driving distance of NYC), work as a spokesperson for companies, or create content for smartphone apps. To writers who say they don’t have time to engage with social media, keynote speaker Jen Singer said, “I don’t have time not to. It’s part of my brand.”
- The importance of telling a story in interesting ways.One panelist pointed out that most magazines rehash the same topics issue after issue. So the key is not finding a wildly original idea, it’s finding an appealing way to revisit those topics (notice I didn’t say fresh – that word is so over-used it now connotes the opposite of its intended meaning). Examples: metaphor, narrative, anecdotes, coining a new word or phrase (such as trophy wife, momcave, locavore), connecting the dots between topics that aren’t usually discussed together.