Huffington Post Social Media & Web Strategy-- Mix Education with Tabloid

A central challenge in all teaching is to get the attention of the student.  So how is this done on the web? 

Bob Garfield, On the Media, asks this question of Farad Manjoo of Slate.  Here is what he says about the strategy at the Huffington Post:

"One of the brilliant things about what Huffington Post does is it really understands this sort of mix of tabloid news and straight news and politically sensational news better than almost any publication on the Internet. And it has this mix down really well, so that it publishes stories about politics, about legitimate news stories and then it also publishes the kinds you just cited."

 So what should this tell the rest of us about education?  What is the combination of topics that we might be using to get the attention of our students?  In parent education, should be include a place to share cute baby pictures and diaries of new parents?  What is the "sensational news" we could include about parenting? 

Of course, some will ask, is this appropriate?  Again, what should we do here?  What compromises our integrity and what is just savvy marketing? 


There are a number of good articles at On the Media on web strategy and search engine optimization, strategies for the "most emailed stories"  that are worth listening to or reading.  Also, note the multiple delivery methods used by On the Media with its content.  They did a very thoughtful discussion of the pros and cons of the impact of the internet on society.