“The new church and state” is focus of upcoming Twitterfest

“The new church and state” is focus of upcoming Twitterfest

TABPI, ASBPE ethics committee to host Twitter conversation, March 14–15.

TABPI TwitterfestThe separation of editorial and sales used to be a simple thing to describe. But today, there is much more to that old equation. For starters, add marketing to the mix, and you have a triumvirate that’s not always easily disjoined.

The third TABPI Twitterfest, sponsored by Trade Association Business Publications International, will be held over two days, from March 14-15, 2011. This year, the ASBPE ethics committee will take part in the Twitterfest.

And after the Twitterfest ends, there will be another opportunity to discuss ethical issues at ASBPE’s March 17 webinar, B2B Ethical Struggles and Solutions in a New-Media Era. [Update 3/14/11: The webinar will be rescheduled.] The webinar will use real-world examples to provide insights into social media challenges, discuss dramatic changes in editorial job descriptions, examine “fair use” and content aggregation abuse, and more.

Some of the topics to be discussed during the Twitterfest include:

  • What are the pros and cons of editors engaging in marketing activities? Today, a ”hands off“ policy seems incorrect. Editors can lend much to the marketing effort without undermining ethical concerns, can’t they? Some form of marketing involvement has been in demand by publishers for quite some time — so what is the best way to proceed?
  • Many staffs initially were charged with delivering timely e-newsletter content once a week. That requirement has risen to twice a week, daily and sometimes twice daily — often without additional staff to get the job done. This burden undoubtedly produces a domino quality effect on other digital or print projects. Things might be okay if marketing pulled the plug on plodding projects. But is that happening fast enough?
  • Is today’s heavier digital/social media workload forcing editors to loosen quality standards in order to meet a greater array of deadlines? How can we make it work?

TABPI Twitterfest is similar to an open chat room, where b2b editors across the globe can talk about issues and ask questions. You can participate in several ways:

  1. Join Twitter (twitter.com) and post Tweets on March 14-15. Your 140-character messages must contain the hash tag #tabpi in order to be a part of the Twitterfest feed, so other editors around the world will see your Tweets.
  2. Point your browser to www.asbpe.org, where we’ll have a widget with the live feed from Twitterfest. You can also go to search.twitter.com/search?q=tabpi and watch what other editors worldwide are talking about.
  3. After watching online what others are saying, you can also join in on the conversation at any time. While we’re encouraging editors to talk about the main topic, you’re free to discuss other b2b topics that might come up.

The first two Twitterfests were a rousing success, with hundreds of Tweets from around the globe, and many people watching the activity.

We understand that time zones across the globe make things a little more difficult for an event like this, hence the two-day window. All editors are encouraged to start tweeting with #tabpi starting on Monday morning the 14th when they arrive at work.