The Knight News Challenge is a media innovation contest funded and run by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The 2011 Challenge seeks innovation in the use of digital technologies that advance the goal of informing and engaging communities. The deadline for submissions is December 1.

This year's Challenge will focus on four categories: Mobile, Authenticity, Sustainability and Community. Applications must fit one (or more) of these categories and also make use of digital technology in an innovative way.

When putting together a social media strategy, be it your initial plan or a revamp, please (except in a few - very few - exceptional cases) stop offering me another movement to jump onto.

A while back, I worked for a woman for three months as a contracted employee - something of an odds and ends outreach person - and after finally putting some thought into her mission, she finally came up with an overarching objective: "I want you to use the Internet to start a movement around [the release of my book]."

The publication in question, which read like a textbook, was a heady and conceptual description of a particular element of global economics. Her goal was radically unachievable and immodest.

Don't try too hard to crack the code of authenticity. Sometimes reaching out and connecting to "the kids" requires more than constructing a seemingly fail-safe online presence.

"We're really focusing on reaching out to kids," is an expression I am getting used to hearing when talking with outreach coordinators at nonprofits. "We're trying to connect with young people by reaching out to them on the Internet," is often uttered in the same breath. "We're really going to connect with them when we launch our social networking site later this year."