Let me introduce myself. I’m a twenty-something college student at Michigan State University. I don’t have cable in my room and I only subscribe to several print magazines, but I read my college paper every day because it’s free and accessible on campus (and I work there, too). I don’t visit newspaper’s Web sites often for fear of obnoxious pop-up ads or ads that play ridiculous music. I read a lot on my phone. I catch up on my favorite TV shows with Hulu because I’m always behind and usual miss when they show on the air. What’s the radio? I’m rarely driving and when I am, I listen to music or Podcasts from my iPod which can connect to my car’s radio.

As if it hasn’t been said before, the media climate is changing. Dramatically. And it’s people like me that are killing it. Or are we?

I don’t think I’m unique at all when it comes to my media consumption. My generation does not subscribe to print newspapers, and I don’t believe we will any time soon. We love what’s free and don’t like to be annoyed with meaningless ads. I don’t go out to find news. The news is finding me. Here’s how:

• My Google Reader is king. I subscribe to a lot of different things and the information comes to me, without ads.
• My Twitter network is pretty awesome, too. They send me things I should be reading and also offer their opinion.
• I rely on my Facebook friends to post the ridiculous and crazy for the day. They never let me down.
• My LinkedIn groups share news about the companies I work for now and in the past. How cool is that?
• Sharing in general has never been easier. I can check out Digg and Delicious to see what other people think is newsworthy.
• My select Podcasts are easy to download to my iPod and even easier to refresh for new content.

Here are some things that I don’t like about newspapers:

• I hate it when a newspaper doesn’t have a good mobile site. I have a Blackberry and I really enjoy catching up on the news if I’m on a bus, waiting for class to start or anywhere else. A great version of this is the New York Times‘ mobile site. My employer, The State News, recently rolled out a mobile version of their new site and it beats the heck out of scrolling through ads and categories to get to the content.
• It’s frustrating when a newspaper’s Twitter account simply is an RSS feed of their content. I won’t follow anything or anyone that does this.
• I think local is what newspapers are totally missing out on. I really don’t care what the Freep has to say about Obama’s latest speech, but I do care about what’s going on in my hometown.

Newspapers need to adjust their mindset. No longer are people going to find the news; the [relevant] news is finding them. Here’s the challenge for newspapers: How do they get to me?

Photo by Wayan Vota on Flickr.

My assignment this week for my NMDL class was to do some free PR for David Meerman Scott. If you haven’t read The New Rules of Marketing & PR yet, you really should. It’s a quick and informative read.

Scott also came out with another book (I just ordered mine on Amazon). Titled World Wide Rave, this book talks about “viral” marketing and how it works. Why is it called World Wide Rave? Scott explains it pretty well:

“A World Wide Rave is when people around the world are talking about you, your company, and your products. Whether you’re located in San Francisco, Dubai, or Reykjavík, it’s when global communities eagerly link to your stuff on the Web. It’s when online buzz drives buyers to your virtual doorstep. And it’s when tons of fans visit your Web site and your blog because they genuinely want to be there.”

I like this description a lot. Viral is a term that is thrown out there too often. It’s worse when you hear someone saying they are going to make a “viral” video. Scott even calls it sleazy, and I agree with him. Even so, there are some really good examples of products and companies online and I’m looking forward to this read. Here’s the page with more information on the book, and below is the video describing the book. Both are worth your time.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F4KHmm566I&hl=en&fs=1]

Scott also posted some of the rules of the rave:

• Nobody cares about your product (except you)
• No coercion required
• Lose control
• Put down roots
• Create triggers that encourage people to share
• Point the world to your (virtual) doorstep

I realized that there’s a lot of cool stuff you can do for free online to help get buzz for a company or product. This also means that you can do a lot understand to enhance your education. Below is what I did to share this information online and make his book a world wide rave. As a student, try some of these Web sites out, especially if you have student-run firms:

• PR.com is a free site you can use to post press releases. I posted a press release on World Wide Rave on this site. Who knows, maybe I’ll get coverage?
• I used Digg and Delicious to bookmark his site
• I posted some links on my Twitter feed
• I even wrote this post! That’s free PR, right?
• I shared some of his posts on Google Reader

All in all, I didn’t realize that there is so much you can do for free.  I wrote a press release and tried out some free PR sites – it’s on my Scribd profile here. It’s all cool stuff. Check out his book, won’t you?

One of the buzzwords for 2009 already is SEO, which stands for search engine optimization. In general, SEO is all about increasing a Web site’s page rank. In terms of Google, the higher the page rank, the higher the site will appear in a search. That’s the simple definition of something that really isn’t that simple.

Everything you would ever need to know about becoming more optimized you can find on the Google Blog. You can also download their SEO guide on that page. Although your site or blog might only be for personal use, it’s good practice to make sure what you are creating is optimized. It’s been my on-going project with this site.

Here are some of the top tips I’ve pulled out from my research this afternoon, and a lot of it relates to basic public relations principles.

• Key Messages. Think like a PR practitioner and prepare key messages. That is, make sure your content is relevant to your topic. Also, in naming your blog and preparing the subhead, think about who will be reading your blog. Is your content interesting? Does your content connect with your audiences?
• Brevity. The shorter and more concise the name and headlines of your page, the more likely it is to show up in a search. Again, relate it back to key messaging and make sure everything ties together. With that said, try to keep it unique and differentiate it from other pages with similar purposes.
• Network. Get to know bloggers online and share their content before you expect them to share yours. Sure, good content will always be appreciated, but building your network ensures that you will have an audience.
• Know how to write. A huge turnoff is bad grammar, spelling errors, and more. Make sure you proof your content before you embarrass yourself. Yes, I have embarrassed myself. I read through my stuff before I post it now.
• Consistency. More than just with your blog or Web site be consistent with all of the social networking sites you’re on. I’m “nicklucido” on pretty much everything, and because of that, my profiles for these sites will be up on a google search of my name. You don’t have to have your name if you’d like to stay anonymous, but whatever you choose, keep it consistent. And avoid names like hotlips69, especially if you plan to connect with professionals.

Honestly, the best way to increase the Google PageRank of your site takes more than just your own desire. But overall, if you create good content and have a strong enough network that will share your content, your rank will increase. Here are some tips on how to increase this number. Below are some ways to monitor and increase how SEO friendly your page in.

• Is your blog registered on Technorati? It should be. You can also check the authority, which is the number of blogs linking to a Web site. Some think this is a good measuring system, and others don’t. Find out for yourself.
• Digg it. The more diggs you get, the more popular your Web site or blog is.
• Stumble upon it. This allows users to rate Web pages, and the most dugg stories appear on the front page of the site.
• Yeah, it’s del.icious. Make sure you bookmark your blog, and if you create content that’s worthwhile, you’ll be lucky to find people think it’s worth sharing.
• When you do all of this to your own blog, find other bloggers and do the same to them. They will usually return the favor. Even better, you can start building the relationship with them.

For students, recent grads and professionals, making yourself findable is key on the Web. I’ve been working on making myself findable, and if you google “nick lucido,” you’ll see that 8 of the first 10 pages are me. Cool! I’m even ahead of the Nick Lucido that grabbed nicklucido.com before I could. Ha!

Last thing to remember: if content is king, make sure your good content is findable.

Some other SEO resrouces:

• A Knol on SEO
• Shannon Paul shares her thoughts on SEO and lists resources here
• Some useful SEO tools
• Use Google Webmaster tools for tips and advice