More about what people and me in #Social #Media say. @ftsrilanka take notes..

So, I’m not going to start ranting about the headache I got when I checked through the new Financial Times daily’s website. A lot more people are doing that. I hope the guys at FT are listening to their feedback (assuming that they do respect their presence on Twitter and take these opinions seriously) and would begin to employ some serious form of presentation.

On the other hand, I did note that The Sunday Leader’s website has taken a significant shift. A positive one. That’s a cue for most to follow. I know the Daily Mirror (the FT’s sibling) is among the most viewed Sri Lankan websites of today; unfortunately it’s also one that needs a trip to the cleaner’s. I hope the FT would take the DM and SunLeader factors into consideration when coming up with their new site.

Having said this, I’m quite impressed with the amount of content, quite decent ones at that, they’ve managed to fit into a daily (and keep doing it every day!). Another point to learn here maybe to integrate a social-media type element into the FT. This not only engages their readers/audience (depending on the format) but also develops their target market (the business world) to start looking deeper, in turn allowing them to monetize the opportunity. An example? Look at the new supplement that shows up with the Sunday Leader called ‘Kottu’. It’s literally a mini offline version of the Sri Lankan blog aggregator – http://www.kottu.org. This presents the offline audience (fair to assume that a large proportion of the readers of the Sunday Leader would be) to the concept of social media and in turn drives more traffic to an online resource – be it the Leader’s website or http://www.kottu.org itself. Having said that, Kottu – the online variant – is a great resource, so it’s a welcome move.

I’ve said this before – and I’ll probably say it again.. the FT made great inroads through it’s presence on Twitter. It made it in a way where most Sri Lankan businesses did not. As such, it makes best sense to include some of the most interesting tweets at the time of going to press, and even a ‘today in #tags’ column, which helps them drive their content to Sri Lankans online.

Right now, here’s my $0.02. Change the website. Integrate social media to the offline world. You’ve built a great story. You’ve got the content to go with it. Just ride the wave. Don’t fall off.

:)

PS: Oh, also, please please bring in the ability to link an article directly.. others call it Permalinks :)

An observation: The #Financial #Times, #Social #Media and #Sri #Lanka. #LKA

Today (technically, yesterday) I ran into http://www.FTOpinion.com, which seems to have been set up by Wijeya Newspapers Ltd, the publisher of The Daily Mirror and it’s Financial Times supplement. They’re on a mission of their own to gather public opinion about FT going solo as an independent standalone newspaper, rather than playing baggage to the Daily Mirror itself.

To me, it seemed very Interesting to note that the publisher has utilised, or at least shown some interest in leveraging social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter (@ftsrilanka) and a web-based forum to achieve its objective.

In short, they seem to be showing some serious consideration to social media, which is relatively new among the critical mass in this part of the world. I think it’d be fair to assume FT to be among the first major Sri Lankan brands to embrace social media in a fairly serious manner. This is in no way to say that consumers in Sri Lanka are new to the concepts of SM. In fact, they’ve done it pretty well, despite the lack of business/commercial push, that is until now. FT just seems to be among the first few to tap into this potential gold mine of opinions.. Which makes me wonder how many more businesses or brands will now follow suite…

It would be interesting to watch how FT’s efforts materialize into conversations and ultimately a follower-base for the brand. Most importantly, I’d love to see how they would apply the feedback they receive towards their product.. (which is ultimately what a brand leveraging SM would be expected to do, right?)

Let’s wait and see..

Watch my tweets for more on this. Thank you for following! :)

ih

(Written off my phone while trying to doze off… Please excuse the grammar or spelling errors, as there would be many…while at the same time, if you’ve reached this far into reading, please share your views about Sri Lanka and its Social Media space. Thanks!)