NowPublic: Struggling or being proactive?

Urg. "Proactive" is one of those marketing words but it seems to fit here.

I'm just back from Heathrow Airport - a two hour delay this time. That's mainly due to the floods that a terrorising parts of the UK and the knock on effects that's having on travel (that and wet and slidey runways across the country).

I have an email from Ryan Nadel the editor at NowPublic which asks for more content. Have you ever had a social/social news site email you and ask for more? It reads:
Dear Sir or Madam,

I am an editor at NowPublic.com. We have you on record as a UK contributor to NowPublic.

We are currently working on the developing story in the UK about the current and expected floods in the region.

Here is a link to an article we have up on the site about the situation. There are some great original photos.

We are looking for more first hand accounts of the floods and original photos and videos. If you or someone you know is interested in contributing please post to the site or drop me an email.

Regards,

NowPublic Editorial Team

I like NowPublic and other than the 'Dear Sir or Madam' this email is well written and to the point. NowPublic doesn't say they lack content. They say they want more.

Is it in the spirit of social news to ask for specific content? Does that take the 'social democracy' element away at all?

Perhaps NowPublic was just using this as a chance to highlight some of the excellent photography they have of the event.

What do you think?

Comments

rnadel said…
Andrew,

Thanks for the shout out - I stumbled upon your post while doing a little googling.

You're right in categorizing my email as proactive. We've found that when we reach out to our contributors with specific 'assignments' we get a much better response.

And you're also correct in that it is important for us to actively engage our members and demonstrate that we are covering issues that affect them so it also a way of highlighting specific content on the site.

And sorry about the ‘Dear Sir & Madam’ it just how the emails came out and by the time they were all populated it was too late to fix…

Cheers,
Ryan
rnadel said…
Andrew,

Thanks for the shout out - I stumbled upon your post while doing a little googling.

You're right in categorizing my email as proactive. We've found that when we reach out to our contributors with specific 'assignments' we get a much better response.

And you're also correct in that it is important for us to actively engage our members and demonstrate that we are covering issues that affect them so it also a way of highlighting specific content on the site.

And sorry about the ‘Dear Sir & Madam’ it just how the emails came out and by the time they were all populated it was too late to fix….

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