There is a great article over at Go Big Always today about online media companies dropping the ball when it comes to social media.

“You’d think media companies would be all over social media. I mean, media is their business. No one should be better than they are at leading the way. They’re sitting on a gold mine of assets. Awesome writers, tons of video and images, lots of “Social Objects.” Media companies are the ones who can get the conversations started and keep it going.

But they’re getting their ass handed to them by blogs. Bloggers are on top of the active conversations and participate in the dialogue without forcing you to jump through hoops before you can chime in. They, like companies in other industries embracing social software and principles, are beating the crap out of the later adopters.”

There are essentially two schools of thoughts at work here. The first is that you force participants to sign up to your site - name, email, password etc. This allows you to gather their information and monetize it down the road. The second, better option, is that you let people contribute freely to the conversation with no strings attached.

Instead of forcing them into giving up their personal information, how about giving them something of value in exchange for it? If your site offers something that unique, eventually users will sign up for more access. The true benefit of social media is engagement. When you force people to disclose personal information in exchange for the privilege of interaction, you are putting up an unnecessary wall in front of them. In the end, you’re defeating the whole purpose of utilizing these social tools in the first place.

Media companies have always been shortsighted. You only have to look as far as the RIAA suing their customers to see what I mean. Many companies, unfortunately, still seem to be heading down the wrong road.