Brian Junyor The Blog

In yet another attempt to drive me away from public broadcasting, the powers that be have axed Reading Rainbow. They stopped taping new episodes in 2006, citing budget issues - now we learn it's part of a strategy to teach phonics & fundamentals. Well, C-R-A-P on you CPB.

Reading Rainbow comes to the end of its 26-year run on Friday; it has won more than two-dozen Emmys, and is the third longest-running children's show in PBS history — outlasted only by Sesame Street and Mister Rogers.

Grant says that PBS, CPB and the Department of Education put significant funding toward programming that would teach kids how to read — but that's not what Reading Rainbow was trying to do.

"Reading Rainbow taught kids why to read," Grant says. "You know, the love of reading — [the show] encouraged kids to pick up a book and to read."

Great post by Shannon Paul, In Defense of Social Media. Excerpt below.

Social media engagement leaves a trail that most traditional media engagement still doesn’t provide: links. Most traditional media still exists in a vacuum that does not link to sources it cites. Calculating the ROI on that sort of engagement is next to impossible and full of all kinds of arbitrary math that rely on art more than science.

Social media engagement on the other hand leaves a digital trail and things like links and traffic can be measured and quantified in a lot of different ways.

The only problem is that the effect will always be larger than what can be captured. For instance, it someone sees a mention on a blog or social network and chooses to search for the company name in a browser rather than click the link directly – that will not be captured. Or, if someone reads something online and speaks to a friend at a party and that friend decides to Google the company name later on – that won’t be captured either. However, we always know that our effect is at least as large as what we’re measuring. Granted, this can become more complicated with different types of business models, but I think you catch my drift.

My last post referenced that 96% of employed consumers say their opinion of a product brand does not change if that brand has no presence on a social networking. Buck up if that put you in a bad mood, here's some good news from eMarketer on the expanding sphere of social network marketing. In short, not having a presence may not have a negative impact on your brand, but having one can have a positive one. One caveat, this is a bit of "it all about who you ask," as MarketingSherpa surveyed "marketing professionals."

Common wisdom over the past few years has been that people are interested in interacting with social network friends, not marketers. Not so, according to Anderson Analytics’ May 2009 survey—52% of social network users had become a fan or follower of a company or brand, while 46% had said something good about a brand or company on a social networking Website—double the percentage who had said something negative (23%).

In a December 2008 MarketingSherpa survey of social media marketing professionals, 92% of respondents said social media marketing was effective at influencing brand reputation and 91% said it worked for increasing brand awareness. These executives found it far less effective for generating sales leads or increasing online sales.

I remember reading this back in July on MakretingCharts. At the time it didn't really register as anything more than mildly interesting, but with all the talk over the last month about engagement and brand value, I thought it was worth another look.

Though many big brands are diving headfirst into social networks with hopes of enhancing their image, an overwhelming 96% of employed consumers say their opinion of a product brand does not change if that brand has no presence on a social networking site, according to a study from WorkPlace Media.

via marketingcharts.com

So, not having an account on a social media site isn't a brand killer. Who knew? Seriously, it's more important to find an appropriate outlet to engage your customers. It might be twitter or facebook OR it might be a forum board on your site or just a freaking contact form.

Don't take this to mean that you should avoid social media, rather you should figure out if it's a media outlet or an engagement platform for your brand.

Enough of this, time to go look at some lolcats.