Adam Ostrow is Editor-in-Chief of Mashable, the enormously popular social media news blog featuring constant coverage of all things Web 2.0. With more than 12.5 million pageviews per month, Mashable has emerged as the preeminent source for the hottest news in the space. We caught up with Adam to learn about Mashable’s involvement in Social Media Week 2010, his thoughts on the overall state of social media and more.
Social Media Week: Please describe your involvement in Social Media Week.
Adam Ostrow: We’re hosting an event on Feb. 3 called “The Future Journalist” that will look at how journalists need to evolve their skills to be successful in the world of new media.
SMW: Mashable just relaunched its home page. What’s the strategy behind the new design, and what do you hope it will achieve?
AO: In the past year or so, we’ve seen social media have a broad impact – it’s more than just Facebook, MySpace and Twitter; it’s how brands, businesses and culture are adapting to it. Our coverage has been expanding to capture these trends, and we think the new design better encapsulates that.
For example, in our business section, you can find out how brands are leveraging social media for marketing. In our entertainment section, you might see a story about how a celebrity is using social media for music distribution. In mobile, you can learn about new devices that will help you access and interact with social media on the go.
Our goal is to better serve the many different groups that are being impacted by social media.
SMW: Mashable is the largest blog in the world “focused exclusively on Web 2.0 and social media news” and your growth in less than 5 years of existence has been tremendous. How do you plan to continue the momentum and can you shed some light on your plans for future growth and development?
AO: We think the new design positions us to grow with social media over the next few years by covering its evolution and impact on a wide variety of industries. Beyond expanding our coverage though, it’s important that we make tech innovations on our own site. Expect to see a number of announcements in this area in the year ahead.
SMW: Your staff is based literally around the world. What are your favorite tools for staying connected to each other?
AO: Our team communicates daily through Campfire which serves as our virtual water cooler. It’s also where we hand out editorial assignments, sort through rumors and help develop angles. When 1-on-1 chat is required, we usually just use Gchat or Skype. We still have conference calls about once a week to make sure everyone’s on the same page as well.
SMW: What will make a pitch stand out when it comes across your desk? What’s piquing your interest lately?
AO: Right now, we’re most interested in interesting use cases of social media. As opposed to simply covering every new tool, we want to give people inspiration about how they can use the major platforms (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, etc.) in their lives and their business. We still cover our fair share of new services too, but it’s easier to pique our interest if you’re doing something cool with one of the major platforms than making the 14,328th attempt to build the next Facebook.
SMW: Describe the moment when you first realized the enormity of the social media revolution.
AO: For me, it’s been a part of my life long before the term “social media” was coined. In more recent times though, those moments you realize the enormity of social media come when you find yourself having a conversation with someone you haven’t talked to in years over something you posted on a blog, Twitter, or Facebook. That’s something that wasn’t possible a generation ago.
SMW: What’s one mistake beginners often make when entering social spaces, and how can it be remedied?
AO: Trying to game the system in the pursuit of more influence. It’s usually painfully obvious when someone is trying to grow their audience this way, and it doesn’t work most of the time. Like most things, it takes time and hard work.
SMW: Give us one prediction for social media in 2010.
AO: Like a lot of bloggers, I published my predictions at the end of 2009. My favorite from the list is that I see live video going mainstream in 2010. Celebs are embracing it, there’s money to be made, and it’s the perfect complement to microblogging and status updates. Ever increasing bandwidth, both at home and on mobile networks, will help a lot too.
You can follow Adam on Twitter @adamostrow.
