Social media was around during the Beijing Summer Olympics of 2008, but as Alex Huot, head of social media for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) predicted, the Winter Games of 2010 in Vancouver would be “the first social media Olympics.” It turns out — he was right.

Today, media corporations are competing with citizen journalists, bloggers and Twitter/Facebook users for the most up-to-date content and volume of online traffic. The Olympics has always been a very tightly controlled media event, in part, to protect those media companies that paid millions of dollars for content and video rights to the Games. But with the use of new media outlets and social media, the IOC implemented new limitations on the athletes‘ use of social networking for the Vancouver Games so that they didn’t become journalists themselves. (more…)

The global response to the crisis in Haiti has been overwhelming, and the outpouring of concern for the Haitian people has been uplifting. Individuals, businesses, governments, and organizations continue to show compassion by donating money, medical assistance and other professional services to aid in the relief efforts. (more…)

On Friday, December 4th, Marketwire attended the public unveiling of the new CBC/Radio-Canada Vancouver integrated newsroom in support of the broadcaster’s annual Food Bank Day Fundraiser. To help promote the event and draw a bigger crowd of “do-gooders”, we organized a tweetup with other marketing and journalist professionals. (more…)

After an eventful first day, Day 2 of the Online News Association’s annual conference opened with a bang as CEO/Founder Lisa Stone, BlogHer, talked about the evolution of “the mommy media.”  She spoke about the transformation of B2B and B2C marketing through blogging.

Some of the top sessions centered on hot-button topics, such as “Journalism for the Mobile Generation” with panelists like Benjamin Moss, director of mobile products, Associated Press.

Other sessions discussed the ethical considerations the media must take into account when using Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, and included tutorials on best practices when using SEO and SEM to reach your audiences. Take a look at J.D Lasica’s (founder, Socialmedia.biz) presentation on social media best practices. (more…)

The fifth annual Online News Association conference is being held this year in San Francisco and includes an amazing line-up of speakers and networking opportunities.  At the top of the conference, participants had already learned about Twisten.fm (Pandora’s cousin – a social media site for music), Muckrack (a journalist-only Twitter feed), and caught a quick glimpse of Yahoo!’s new editorial style guide. We collected a ton of marketing shwag and chatted with the editorial director of CNNMoney.com. (more…)

We are in San Francisco this week, exhibiting at the Online News Association conference that hosts news writers, designers, editors, photographers, and technologists who produce content for the internet. This year marks ONA’s 10th anniversary.

ONA has put together an A-list roster to include media behemoths like Evan Williams, founder, Twitter, Chris Barr, senior editorial director, Yahoo!, and Lisa Stone, CEO, BlogHer.

The ONA conference will focus on the transformation of traditional media and honor companies that are leaders in the electronic media community. The educational sessions speak to the production and consumption of social media, mobile media, streaming media, and draw attention to the evolution of news.

Highlights and commentary to come — stay tuned!