Using Industry Awards to Effectively Grow Your Business

In the current market where anyone can “publish” instructional materials on a website, educational publishers need to find ways to separate their products from the market and highlight their commitment to quality content. In this blog post, reprinted with permission from VerticalResponse, CEO and founder Janine Popick discusses why small businesses should enter industry awards.

If you’re running a small business today, congratulations! You should be proud that you’re  keeping the economy going. You should also give yourself a huge pat on the back for surviving and thriving. One of the easiest and most inexpensive ways of giving yourself that pat on the back is to apply for industry awards that you could be eligible for.

Mining Social Media for Market Intelligence

Janet Eden-Harris, Vice President, Marketing, J.D. Power and Associates, spoke at the 2009 AEP Summit about how publishers should gather information and interact with customers on blogs, chat rooms, and other forms of new media. Here are highlights from her session, “Mining Social Media for Market Intelligence.”

Using social media to gather market intelligence is about listening in on the conversation. Whereas the traditional method for gathering data was doing a survey—asking the customer questions and hoping they would answer back—new media marketing involves finding people who are already discussing your products or areas of interest online. The power has shifted to the consumers, and they want to tell you what they think on their own time and in their own way.

How Fair Use Enables Media Literacy to Thrive

When educational publishers hear the term fair use, they often brace themselves for the argument that teachers should be able to copy, post, and reuse the material without permission as long as it’s for educational use. However, when Renee Hobbs of Temple University’s Media Education Lab and Peter Jaszi of the Washington College of Law, American University, spoke at the 2009 AEP Summit they explained that while the principle of Fair Use is important in education and educational materials, it does not trump a publisher’s copyright. In fact, in their breakout session, “How Fair Use Enables Media Literacy to Thrive,” they presented a compelling case for how Fair Use can actually help publishers enhance their own products and resources.

Over the last 25-30 years copyright has become a dynamic field. Copyright lasts longer, covers more material, and the penalties are much higher. The courts–including the Supreme Court–have said, though, that what keeps copyright from impinging on free speech and the First Amendment is fair use.
Fair use is a legal doctrine that allows for the unlicensed, unauthorized, and uncompensated use of copyrighted material when the social and cultural benefits exceed the costs imposed by private parties. While there are four parts to fair use–nature of use, type of use, amount used, and the economic effect–Jaszi said that the courts really look for two critical standards when applying the concept.

Encyclopaedia Britannica named a “Superbrand”

Encyclopaedia Britannica, an AEP member, was named the number 10 “Superbrand” in the UK for 2009-10. The only publishing brand in the top 50, Britannica moved up from its previous slot of 29.

According to the Britannica Blog, “The survey, carried out by the Centre for Brand Analysis on behalf of Superbrands UK, looked at 1,400 brands and canvassed more than 2,000 consumers to arrive at a list of the most respected businesses, based on perceptions of their products’ quality, reliability, and distinction.”

Read more about Britannica at Bookseller.com, and get the Top 10 list and more information about the program at the BBC.

Michael Ross, Senior VP, Education General Manager for Encyclopaedia Britannica, will be inducted into the Educational Publishing Hall of Fame on Dec. 3, 2009.

Educational publishing’s top marketing products honored

AEP has announced the winners of the 2009 Beacon Awards for excellence in education marketing. This year’s winners were honored at a special luncheon held during the AEP Summit in Washington, DC, at the JW Marriott hotel. The featured speaker at the event was Joe Rospars, founding partner at Blue State Digital and New Media Director on Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.