Thoughts On Twitter, Competition & Ypulse Ethics

So….I'm not sure about Twitter. I get it as a tool to coordinate with your friends a la Dodgeball, but I think the notion of live Twittering is too much. I tried to "Twitter" a couple of talks at the Youth Marketing Mega Event and felt the impact of posting 106 "Tweets" on my poor Twitter followers — especially those receiving them on their phones (ouch). I'm also not so into sharing the mundane stuff like "catching my breath" or "trying to wake up." I was doing it with my Facebook status sporadically, but it just makes me feel strangely self conscious. So…my plan is to use it this weekend at SXSW primarily to share where I am and where I'm going so other folks who are there can catch up.

On to the Mega Event (where I spent Monday afternoon and part of yesterday) - I had fun seeing some now familiar faces (you go to enough of these youth marketing events and you realize how small our world is) and getting to know a few Ypulse Readers from Alcatel Lucent and Do Something. I also got to have a drink with Ze Frank (swoon) and catch up with danah boyd who is madly working to complete her dissertation. I also had the strange first-time experience of being "a competitor." Now that Ypulse produces our own Mashup events that vie for some of the same attendees and sponsors, I'm no longer just the blogger who gets to attend in exchange for promoting their conferences. My sense is that there will be some people who continue to go to these conferences, some who go to Ypulse Mashups and some who go to both. I also realized that competition is good because it makes you try harder and think about ways to further differentiate what you do.

I attended a few of the sessions apart from the panel I moderated before flying back yesterday afternoon including Craig Sherman's preso on Gaia Online, the opening keynotes from the NPD Group's Marshal Cohen and Ze Frank and some of danah boyd's morning keynote. I will post these recaps separately.

One bit of feedback I received from a Ypulse reader was the fear that as Ypulse signs on more advertisers and event sponsors, the content will be somehow influenced or "bought." This arose because we moved our directory to a back page in order to make room for more advertisers. I felt like this was important enough to warrant a post.

It's funny because I was recently interviewed by a student at my alma matter, the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern, about ethics, as well as having spoken to a new media class (also at Medill) about blogging. Ypulse.com is not pure journalism or a news gathering organization - it is a free aggregated news and opinion source that is ad supported. We also make money from Ypulse Mashup events (and will be rolling out some other new initiatives soon that will also generate additional revenue to ensure our success as a media company).

I'm not out reporting or breaking news, but I do use a journalistic approach to what I do. I try to make sure the links I use come from credible sources and correct any factual error I make. I label our paid advertising on the site and have tried to redesign so our leaderboard ad is more obviously an ad (there was confusion in the past). Whenever I link to content from or about a site advertiser I disclose that they are an advertiser. We do offer sponsored posts as part of our event sponsorships - examples of these are here and here (in both I was transparent about the fact that they were part of a sponsorship).

We have worked hard since our first event to develop a sponsorship program where sponsored speaking is separate from editorially chosen speakers and is clearly labeled as such. You won't see a sponsor "chairing" our event or on a panel (a change we made after last July) unless that speaker was asked to be on the panel before their company decided to sponsor. I now have a business partner, Charles Pelton, who acts as Ypulse's publisher (think magazine model) and exclusively deals with the sponsorship "side of the house," while I manage the editorial side and try to stay out of it as much as possible.

Ypulse will always be an independent news source — If one of my advertisers or sponsors is criticized in the media, I will not shy away from posting those links. If one of my advertisers launches a campaign I feel completely misses the mark, I will be critical. If one of my advertisers does something I feel is unethical, I will post my opinion about that, too. We may also give them a chance to respond. If you have any concerns or suggestions for us related to these issues, please feel free to post a comment or drop me a line.

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