San Francisco’s Great New Year’s Fireworks 2010 (Pics)
by John Boitnott on January 2, 2011 in Fun Stuff, Images
So You Want to Be in Television News?
by John Boitnott on December 20, 2010 in Television
Ah the good old days. I’ve worked in TV news on and off since 1994 and I cannot tell you how many times I have seen someone like this come along. They love Katie Couric, they think they are perfect for your morning show and they wonder if they should be getting at least $65,000 [...]
Brian Solis and Katie Couric: Turns out Couric Understands Social Media
by John Boitnott on December 11, 2010 in Facebook, Journalism, Media Stuff, Privacy, Social Media, Tech Culture, Television
Back in 2009 when I spoke at the Twitter140 conference in New York I had the chance to meet a personal hero of mine, Ann Curry, who works the Today show for NBC. She spoke on a panel about how Twitter played a role in the Iranian green revolution of that year. Afterward I got [...]
The Social Media Tsunami is Here
by John Boitnott on October 20, 2010 in Media Stuff, Social Media, Tech Culture, Television
It’s becoming more and more well known. The more clients I talk to, the more I hear that someone on their team is attending “Social media Bootcamp” or some such. This video perfectly illustrates why.
Is Craig Ferguson the heir apparent to Bill Hicks?
by John Boitnott on September 5, 2010 in Entertainment, Media Stuff, Politics, Social Media, Tech Culture, Television
One of the interesting things about Craig Ferguson is that, not only does he semi ad-lib his way through extremely funny monologues most nights, he also periodically injects his humor with life or history lessons. He did this one night when he started the Late Late Show by explaining, in a very succinct manner, why [...]
The World at Large is Transitioning to the New Digg?
by John Boitnott on August 19, 2010 in Digg, Politics, Social Media, Sports, Tech Culture
If you are active on Digg.com you receive a steady stream of email notifications telling you that people are now following your account, because they are “interested in what you are up to on Digg!” or some such. Well as if that steady stream of “fan following” wasn’t enough… it’s apparently started coming from the [...]
My 89-Year-Old Grandma Loves Playing Solitaire on iPad
by John Boitnott on July 31, 2010 in Fun Stuff, Tech Culture
So when my mother first bought an Apple IIc back in the day, one of the main things that we got it for, aside from me being able to play King’s Quest II or whatever, was that my Dad could learn how to use the mouse and keyboard better. My Dad had been a security [...]
How to Start Your Publisher Profile on the New Digg
by John Boitnott on July 24, 2010 in Digg, Fun Stuff, Social Media, Tech Culture
“Diggers don’t die we multiply.” – Neal Rodriguez I’ve been getting a lot of requests from people on what they should do to get started with a publisher account on the new version of Digg. I’m really not interested in saying too much myself – since it can all be said relatively easily by my [...]
Twitter140: They Drew a Cartoon of Me
by John Boitnott on July 15, 2010 in Journalism, Social Media, Tech Culture, Twitter
My trip to New York City to speak at the Twitter140 Conference in June, 2009 was one of the most fun experiences I have had in my years of working in social media. I had recently started my job at Village Voice Media at the time, and was sent to represent the company in the [...]
Why Some of the Best Facebook Status Updates Don’t Even Include a Link
by John Boitnott on July 12, 2010 in Facebook, Journalism, Media Stuff, Social Media
People who operate company Facebook fan pages are always looking for ways to grow their communities and increase interaction with followers on the site. It’s plainly obvious, just by looking at analytics, that fan pages have become hubs for building interest in news organizations. It takes an arsenal of methods for growing that interest. Perhaps [...]
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My 89-Year-Old Grandma Loves Playing Solitaire on iPad
July 31, 2010
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Two Main Reasons Empire Avenue is Worthwhile
May 28, 2011
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Wow, they only have 42 of ‘em? (pic)
July 2, 2010
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Journalists Wonder What’s Better on Twitter – “First” or “Correct”
June 19, 2009
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Using Pics with Tweets to Engage People and Attract Followers
October 11, 2009
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SEO Salary Guide [Infographic]
November 30, 2011
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Social Media And Why You Should Bother With Online Education
November 22, 2011
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Black Friday And Cyber Monday: Hacks And Scams [Infographic]
November 22, 2011
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Google vs. Facebook on Privacy and Security (Infographic)
November 8, 2011
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Best Education Sites, and the Schools that Rule the Web (Infographic)
October 27, 2011
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Carol Malabey: Thanks very much Cheryl, for your words of appreci...
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John Boitnott: Ack! I hate it when that happens. Fixed. :)...
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David Walker: Ack! The word "it's", when possessive (as in "its...
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John Boitnott: Thanks Casey for your comment. I couldn't agree mo...
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Casey Quinlan: You've nailed the new-media publisher dilemma - mo...

Hi I'm John Boitnott. Welcome to my blog! Here I talk about how old media is coping with the Web. I write for Soshable.com, build buzz for sites and advise writers on how to make their work more likely to be shared online. I have worked at Venturebeat, Village Voice Media and NBC. Before that I held several positions at various TV newsrooms in the state of California, from 1994 to 2009.