1. Who are you and what is your website about?
I’m Sebastien Provencher, co-founder of a startup called Praized Media. Our flagship product, a social media lead generation service, is called Needium. My blog, found at http://blogs.praized.com/seb/, is where I post my thoughts on the intersection of local media and social media, what I called Local 2.0 when I started it.
2.Why did you start your blog?
I started my blog in September 2006, after founding my startup. I started it for two main reasons:
- First, I had things to say and ideas to share about the traditional local media space and the rise of social media. I knew social media would play a big role in the evolution of “local” online and the years have proven my right.
- Second, because my company was still in stealth mode, we wanted to start building the brand before launch, which is why my blog is using the praized.com URL. It allowed us to position ourselves as technology thought leaders even before having a product.
3. What has been the most explosive post on your blog and why?
It’s probably “I have seen the future of local media” (http://blogs.praized.com/seb/business-models/i-have-seen-the-future-of-local-media). It’s the kind of post you write once in a decade, a synthesis of 10 years of market evolution and a “stake in the ground”, view of the future. What started as a short blog post quickly turned into a 10-page white paper about the future of local media. It generated a lot of discussions in the industry because I was taking position and offering a strategic direction to local media companies. Some people have told me they are using this post as a product roadmap.
4. What is the craziest/most interesting exchange you’ve seen in your blog comments and why?
In March 2008, I wrote another seminal post titled “Twitter is the new Facebook”, http://blogs.praized.com/seb/comscore/twitter-is-the-new-facebook. I made the front page of Digg.com and my blog was visited by over 30,000 people over a few hours. I received a storm of comments (64 by last count), some extremely positive, some calling me stupid. It was a very interesting experience!
5. What is the best article for a new reader on your blog to see?
I think the “I have seen the future of local media” blog post is a good example of the kind of industry analysis and crystal-ball gazing I do in my blog. “Introducing Needium” (http://blogs.praized.com/seb/about/introducing-needium-the-social-media-lead-generation-reputation-management-dashboard-for-smbs/) is probably a good example of a product post, explaining how we come up with new product ideas in my company.
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