Second Life - the corporate invasion
Besides Crayon and Text100, lots of real-world businesses that have set up outposts in Second Life.
Adidas
Nissan
Sun Microsystems
Reebok
Penguin
American Apparel
Reuters
CNET Networks
PA Consulting
Yankee Stadium
Bartle Bogle Hegarty
Saturday, November 18, 2006
On line more secure than you think
e-commerce is far safer than it is perceived to be. And yet the message appears not to be getting through.
Sure there are problems - where there is money there is crime - but statistics from PayPal (which has a very obvious reason to want to address these concerns) suggest the majority of UK adults still think the internet poses a considerable risk.
And, according to Silicon.com
A credit card number has never - to our knowledge - been intercepted in flight. This is because, to use an analogy, it is like trying to shoot down the smallest, fastest moving bird through a thicket of trees.
To further the analogy, it's far easier for the criminals to wait therefore until all these birds are sat in one big coop with all the other birds and then try to find a way to take them all rather than wrestling with the complexity of taking them one by one.
As such, the database is more commonly the target than the transaction. And databases are at risk whether it is an ecommerce site or a high street shop processing the transaction.
e-media spend - £36 per year per person
Nielsen/NetRatings reported that UK consumers are starting to embrace the idea of paying for their e-media.
On average people are spending £36 per year. Video content is closing the gap on audio, accounting for 43 per cent of spending.
The biggest spenders are unsurprisingly the 18 to 24 age group, which spends an average of £5.34 per month on online content. Men shell out around 40 per cent more than women per month.
Does this mean that men need more entertaining.
Friday, November 17, 2006
Interactive video
The Agent Provocateur film, will be the first viral film that allows viewers to click on objects within a moving video and be directed straight to the relevant information webpage/site.
The viral trailer is being distributed this week by NovaRising via interactive video email, which opens directly within the receiver’s email application. Initial click through rates of up to 56% have been recorded so far in the campaign.
In the meantime, in the interests of factual completion, I thought you may like to see the video in YouTube.
It cuts out the email middleman.
The viral trailer is being distributed this week by NovaRising via interactive video email, which opens directly within the receiver’s email application. Initial click through rates of up to 56% have been recorded so far in the campaign.
In the meantime, in the interests of factual completion, I thought you may like to see the video in YouTube.
It cuts out the email middleman.
Integrate email and cell phones plus mobile video and podcasts
Allisblue has announced a partnership with European Telecom, to offer its 'SMS2mail' service in the UK.
The technology creates a link between SMS and email and transform all types
of mobile telephones into Web remote controls.
By sending an sms (or placeing a a call) to initiate the transfer of content, applications can include:
News briefs, administrative forms, access to a contest, downloading of an MP3, Video clips, Manuals and even a video game.
This will be a useful tool for all kinds of PR activity including issues and crisis management, information for journalists, podcasting and lots of other things.
The technology creates a link between SMS and email and transform all types
of mobile telephones into Web remote controls.
By sending an sms (or placeing a a call) to initiate the transfer of content, applications can include:
News briefs, administrative forms, access to a contest, downloading of an MP3, Video clips, Manuals and even a video game.
This will be a useful tool for all kinds of PR activity including issues and crisis management, information for journalists, podcasting and lots of other things.
The Online PR opportunity
A study, commissioned by Bluestreak, reveals consumer behaviour and attitudes towards emerging technologies including podcasts, text messages (SMS), RSS, blogs and message boards as well as the more traditional email platform.
The rate of adoption for new communication technologies represents a huge opportunity for Public Relations. The findings of the survey help us find out why.
People use a range of channles: 100 percent of respondents currently use email compared to 88 percent using text messaging; 71 percent using message boards; 63 percent using blogs; 36 percent using podcasting and 28 percent using RSS.
There is acceptance of adjunct messages and even advertising as the trade-off for good content and a further willingness to accept ads and "sponsored" content as long as the information is relevant and high-quality. As always, over-communicating can have an adverse effect both on the marketer's brand and their bottom line.
The proliferation of sponsored channels seems to have an impact on consumers’ usage (30 percent would stop reading a blog they know it is sponsored, 34 percent would stop reading a sponsored message board). Text messaging advertising is cited as the most unpopular form of advertising communication among these five emerging channels (77 percent of respondents say there is too much text advertising and 80 percent feel negatively towards text message advertisers).
A majority of respondants expressed a feeling thta ads are either “random” “get in the way” or “are not directed to me”
Although consumers accept the existence of advertising, most do not respond unless they feel the offer is "personalized" or "useful"
Although podcasting is included in this criticism, it also had the highest score among its peer set on relevance/personalization with 25 percent feeling the ads accomplished that goal.
Consumers are mainly concerned about viruses, identity theft and spyware as byproducts of using such channels (64, 56 and 53 percent respectively). Spam concerns were listed below these at 44 percent.
Respondents consider “emails they once signed up for but no longer want” as spam.
Building communities would still seem to offer the best opportunity.
The rate of adoption for new communication technologies represents a huge opportunity for Public Relations. The findings of the survey help us find out why.
People use a range of channles: 100 percent of respondents currently use email compared to 88 percent using text messaging; 71 percent using message boards; 63 percent using blogs; 36 percent using podcasting and 28 percent using RSS.
There is acceptance of adjunct messages and even advertising as the trade-off for good content and a further willingness to accept ads and "sponsored" content as long as the information is relevant and high-quality. As always, over-communicating can have an adverse effect both on the marketer's brand and their bottom line.
The proliferation of sponsored channels seems to have an impact on consumers’ usage (30 percent would stop reading a blog they know it is sponsored, 34 percent would stop reading a sponsored message board). Text messaging advertising is cited as the most unpopular form of advertising communication among these five emerging channels (77 percent of respondents say there is too much text advertising and 80 percent feel negatively towards text message advertisers).
A majority of respondants expressed a feeling thta ads are either “random” “get in the way” or “are not directed to me”
Although consumers accept the existence of advertising, most do not respond unless they feel the offer is "personalized" or "useful"
Although podcasting is included in this criticism, it also had the highest score among its peer set on relevance/personalization with 25 percent feeling the ads accomplished that goal.
Consumers are mainly concerned about viruses, identity theft and spyware as byproducts of using such channels (64, 56 and 53 percent respectively). Spam concerns were listed below these at 44 percent.
Respondents consider “emails they once signed up for but no longer want” as spam.
Building communities would still seem to offer the best opportunity.
PR TV now playing
PR practitioners can now host their own on line video Screening Rooms, inviting others to watch high-quality video content, while they control the video experience.
Online portal Lycos has launched a new site that lets users watch video content and chat with other users at the same time.
Initially available as a beta test, Lycos Cinema uses a patent-pending video platform which allows users to view and chat in real-time.
Online portal Lycos has launched a new site that lets users watch video content and chat with other users at the same time.
Initially available as a beta test, Lycos Cinema uses a patent-pending video platform which allows users to view and chat in real-time.
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
IBM sticks its head in the oven
On Monday I commented about how we have such an awful time with our heads stuck in the virtual world of our computer screens. Well IBM has already given it a lot of thought.
CEO Sam Palmisano announced a $100 million spending plan in front of more than 7,000 employees at a Town Hall meeting held on the popular virtual world Second Life. Palmisano unveiled 10 new business opportunities the company intends to pursue.
Each of those ideas will receive approximately $10 million in funding to be spent over the next 12 months. One of the ideas Palmisano will announce is that IBM is forming a new business unit to help clients use lessons learned from virtual worlds to real-world business problems.
Chief technology officer, Irving Wladawsky-Berger, is on record saying (on his blog) "using such virtual, highly visual capabilities to help us design, simulate, optimize, operate and manage business activities of all sorts is going to be one of the most important breakthroughs in the IT industry over the next decade."
"I am convinced that dealing with such business applications in a kind of SimBusiness fashion -- that is, the application feels like a realistic simulation of the business and its operations -- will not only transform IT but business itself."
I have no doubt.
CEO Sam Palmisano announced a $100 million spending plan in front of more than 7,000 employees at a Town Hall meeting held on the popular virtual world Second Life. Palmisano unveiled 10 new business opportunities the company intends to pursue.
Each of those ideas will receive approximately $10 million in funding to be spent over the next 12 months. One of the ideas Palmisano will announce is that IBM is forming a new business unit to help clients use lessons learned from virtual worlds to real-world business problems.
Chief technology officer, Irving Wladawsky-Berger, is on record saying (on his blog) "using such virtual, highly visual capabilities to help us design, simulate, optimize, operate and manage business activities of all sorts is going to be one of the most important breakthroughs in the IT industry over the next decade."
"I am convinced that dealing with such business applications in a kind of SimBusiness fashion -- that is, the application feels like a realistic simulation of the business and its operations -- will not only transform IT but business itself."
I have no doubt.
Web advertsing - big under estimations - Semel
There is a fixation among so many people that the internet is the web. US online ad revenues have reached a new record according to figures from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). They are talking about web sites (remember those things - sort of brochures with gizmos).
The report, conducted by PwC, showed a 33% increase in internet ad revenues from the same period in 2005.
But, in a speech in London yesterday, Yahoo! CEO Terry Semel said growth predictions were underestimating the market by failing to take account of the potential of video, social media and mobiles advertising. "[Video] will be ever-present throughout the internet, and it will find its proper way to advertise. "So whether it's mobile or whether it's video or whether it's more and more community, these factors have not gone into those numbers, so we think the actual growth potential of advertising online is really being understated."
And lots of it is 'community' the natural space for PR practice.
The report, conducted by PwC, showed a 33% increase in internet ad revenues from the same period in 2005.
But, in a speech in London yesterday, Yahoo! CEO Terry Semel said growth predictions were underestimating the market by failing to take account of the potential of video, social media and mobiles advertising. "[Video] will be ever-present throughout the internet, and it will find its proper way to advertise. "So whether it's mobile or whether it's video or whether it's more and more community, these factors have not gone into those numbers, so we think the actual growth potential of advertising online is really being understated."
And lots of it is 'community' the natural space for PR practice.
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Local Newspapers stringers for the Beeb
BBC director general Mark Thompson speaking at the Society of Editors conference promised that online local TV would work in "partnership" with local newspapers, and even pay them for content.
"But in the words of one regional newspaper executive, the most constructive thing Thompson could have said would have been: "We're not going to do it."
"Thompson told the Glasgow conference this week: "In addition to our own local and regional newsrooms, we want to draw on the newsgathering clout of the UK's local and regional newspapers — and we'll pay for it.
"That means a revenue stream, but also visibility and credit on the BBC's new local service."
Not to mention an extra outlet for the video content generated by local newspaper reporters.
"But in the words of one regional newspaper executive, the most constructive thing Thompson could have said would have been: "We're not going to do it."
"Thompson told the Glasgow conference this week: "In addition to our own local and regional newsrooms, we want to draw on the newsgathering clout of the UK's local and regional newspapers — and we'll pay for it.
"That means a revenue stream, but also visibility and credit on the BBC's new local service."
Not to mention an extra outlet for the video content generated by local newspaper reporters.
Vodaphone offers grungy broadband
Vodafone has said it will offer broadband for £25 a month from January 8 to Vodafone mobile phone customers.
The "Vodafone at Home" package includes line rental, unlimited broadband access, landline calls within Britain and 25% off calls to mobiles. Bla de Bla de Bla.
Rivals Carphone Warehouse, Orange and satellite TV operator BSkyB, BT et al have been battling for subscribers with grungy 2 to 8 meg Broadband a load of junk dumped on your computer (called 'giveaways') and time wasting hours - sometimes days and days and weeks of Internet downtime while they swap you to their equally slug like service.
If Vodafone could offer cellular broadband for my laptop at a price that makes sense, a decent link from phone to computer without a heap more software dumped on it (oh... and yet ANOTHER bloody email address), they may have a chance.Welsh put forward best PR campaigns
David Williamson tells us that SWANSEA-BASED public relations agency MGB PR has notched up eight nominations in the PR industry's flagship awards.
This record number of possible prizes at the Chartered Institute of Public Relations awards is a first for Wales in the process as it now holds the title of the most-nominated PR company in the UK.
Brits lag in the blog race
Among Europeans Britons are the least switched on to web logs, an Ipsos MORI poll found.
The French are far more savvy.
The survey of 2,200 Europeans that 90 percent of French people surveyed said they were familiar with blogs, nearly twice as many as the number of Britons interviewed (50 percent).
But the rest of Europe is barely logged-on when it comes to online diaries either. The Spanish did only marginally better than Britons in recognising the term blog (51 percent), while in Germany, 55 percent were blog-aware, and in Italy, 58 percent had heard of the term reports Reuters.
Blogs - the new sellers medium?
Blogs are becoming a force to be reckoned with as a means of advertising products, according to an Ipsos MORI poll. It found that the Internet journals are a more trusted source of information than TV advertising or e-mail marketing.
Well! What a suprise! Here is more of the report from Reuters.
Ipsos MORI found a direct link between blogs, or user-generated content, and people's intentions to buy goods or services. Any company that fails to come up to standard should beware. The blog is replacing word of mouth for endorsing or condemning a product or service. About a third of those Europeans questioned said they had been put off making a purchase after reading negative comments on the Internet from customers or other web-users, while 52 percent said they had been persuaded to buy after a positive review on a blog. Get it right, and blogs could be a boost to companies and even save on their advertising and marketing budgets. Blogs, or weblogs, are a more trusted source of information (24 percent) than television advertising (17 percent) and email marketing (14 percent), the survey commissioned by Hotwire, a technology public relations consultancy, said.But they still lag behind newspapers (30 percent).
Well! What a suprise! Here is more of the report from Reuters.
Ipsos MORI found a direct link between blogs, or user-generated content, and people's intentions to buy goods or services. Any company that fails to come up to standard should beware. The blog is replacing word of mouth for endorsing or condemning a product or service. About a third of those Europeans questioned said they had been put off making a purchase after reading negative comments on the Internet from customers or other web-users, while 52 percent said they had been persuaded to buy after a positive review on a blog. Get it right, and blogs could be a boost to companies and even save on their advertising and marketing budgets. Blogs, or weblogs, are a more trusted source of information (24 percent) than television advertising (17 percent) and email marketing (14 percent), the survey commissioned by Hotwire, a technology public relations consultancy, said.But they still lag behind newspapers (30 percent).
Head in the Oven
The NewPR conference on Friday was, as always, great fun. The light bulbs that go on are especial fun and meeting Victoria Newlands (a student from Lincoln University who is really into social media) and having a good gossip with Simon Wakeman, Stuart Bruce, Neville Philip, Rob Skinner and Rob Skinner was an extra bonus.
Nicky and Andrew Wake from Don't Panic have a very friendly way of managing conferences which is a boon. I should say that Sam (from Bournemouth Uni was there too... Hi Sam! can't wait for you to blog about the conference too (and this is what we got up to while you trained it back for the Graduation Ball).
The conference closed with an overview of networking and a short but debate-provoking look at virtual environments but mostly Second Life.
One of the conference goers, said that she would rather out her head in the oven that go into SecondLife.
It struck me that this is where most of us really are.
We have our heads stuck, not in an oven but close to it, a computer screen. In there we play with a pretty clunky virtual environment (word processing, emailing, a bit of IM, cut, copy, save, drag, retype, look up phone number, tasks to do - all that sort of stuff). Its very boring. It is virtual environments with none of the fun. It is the equivalent of a smoky industrial town of the 19th century. It is a pretty smelly oven.
PR's, Journo's, marketers, CEO's all with their heads in the oven.
Perhaps it is time that decent virtual environment should be made available.
Something and somewhere worth inhabiting. A place where work is not clunky, soulless, and populated by documents, pages and emails but populated with people, action and results.
We have had our heads in an oven.... Can we move on now please?
The conference closed with an overview of networking and a short but debate-provoking look at virtual environments but mostly Second Life.
One of the conference goers, said that she would rather out her head in the oven that go into SecondLife.
It struck me that this is where most of us really are.
We have our heads stuck, not in an oven but close to it, a computer screen. In there we play with a pretty clunky virtual environment (word processing, emailing, a bit of IM, cut, copy, save, drag, retype, look up phone number, tasks to do - all that sort of stuff). Its very boring. It is virtual environments with none of the fun. It is the equivalent of a smoky industrial town of the 19th century. It is a pretty smelly oven.
PR's, Journo's, marketers, CEO's all with their heads in the oven.
Perhaps it is time that decent virtual environment should be made available.
Something and somewhere worth inhabiting. A place where work is not clunky, soulless, and populated by documents, pages and emails but populated with people, action and results.
We have had our heads in an oven.... Can we move on now please?
Public Relations affects England soccer lin-up
t is assumed, probably correctly, that Beckham’s defenestration from the England set-up was a judgment based more on public relations than on Beckham’s apparently declining ability on the football pitch.The interesting part of this is a media comment that recognises a PR strategy into the management mix. The important part is that it shows how important it is, even for a Football star, to have a public relations strategy.A new manager who began the job tainted by his association with the discredited previous regime asserted his supposed independence by dropping the player most closely connected to Sven-Göran Eriksson — the player Sven would never drop, no matter how hopelessly he was performing. Steve McClaren seems not to have the slightest intention of picking Beckham, no matter how catastrophically his first-choice XI perform."
Voices for your podcast
After wading through the usual PR/marketing hype, this news from a press release may be useful.
Voices.com has added three new categories of voices including documentary voice over categories that you can use for you podcasts.
The abomination called a press release takes hundreds of words to say it but if you are really bored, the release was published at Newswire Today.
Voices.com has added three new categories of voices including documentary voice over categories that you can use for you podcasts.
The abomination called a press release takes hundreds of words to say it but if you are really bored, the release was published at Newswire Today.
Google dug up worms
Google has apologised to users of its Google Video Blog, some 50,000 of whom were exposed to an email worm after three postings were infected and sent out to mailing lists. No details of how the incident happened have emerged, and Google claims to be 'taking steps' to prevent such occurrences reports Virus Bulletin.
The blog (here) is used to keep readers informed of the latest and best additions to the YouTube-style Google Video system, and includes an email subscription system for updates. The postings, made on Tuesday night and since removed, were infected with 'W32/Kapser.a@mm', also commonly known as MyWife, Nyxem or Blackmal and referred to in the press as the Kama Sutra worm.
For PR people this sort of news is a problem. Where do you go to for advice, how can you tell if you have a virus and how can you be sure you are not passing one on.
Try the virus checking software people. They have really good information on these things.
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Telegraph.co.uk launches bloggers 'style' guide
Telegraph.co.uk, which has 14 bloggers, has published an editorial style guide for its bloggers.
Pause in rate of blog growth
Blog growth, which is down from an average of 160,000 new blogs per day in July to 100,000 new blogs at the end of September. Technorati’s latest State of the Blogosphere report shows continuing growth in the number of active blogs, with over 57 million blogs currently being tracked. Blog numbers has slowed slightly since the last quarter, something Technorati put down to more effective measures at limiting the number of spam blogs (aka 'splogs') listed.
English langauge now accounts for less than 40% of blogs, with Japanese and Chinese language blogs in second and third place (in terms of popularity).
English langauge now accounts for less than 40% of blogs, with Japanese and Chinese language blogs in second and third place (in terms of popularity).
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Monday, November 06, 2006
THE PR search engine
Contantin has done it again.
Here is his introduction:
If you want to search across all the PR blogs, wikis, and news feeds included in the PR & Communications Blogs List, you can use a custom search powered by Google Co-op:
BT slugging it out - again
Increasingly, broadband is allowing people to contribute back to the net rather than just being passive downloaders of content, reports the BBC. But, while uptake has helped the UK to the broadband fast track, lack of speed compared to other countries could still see it derailed.
Experts warn the UK is falling behind its European counterparts when it comes to speed. In the UK the fastest speed currently on offer is 24Mbps (megabits per second) although typically the fastest people will get is about 8Mbps. French surfers are enjoying around 24Mbps as standard. BT does not plan to roll out its next-generation broadband until the middle of 2007.
Broadband is certainly holding our attention - with high-speed surfers spending around six hours more online each week than those still using dial-up.
Experts warn the UK is falling behind its European counterparts when it comes to speed. In the UK the fastest speed currently on offer is 24Mbps (megabits per second) although typically the fastest people will get is about 8Mbps. French surfers are enjoying around 24Mbps as standard. BT does not plan to roll out its next-generation broadband until the middle of 2007.
Broadband is certainly holding our attention - with high-speed surfers spending around six hours more online each week than those still using dial-up.
Keeping up with like minded people - marketers note
BL Ochman reports that most big brand sims in Second Life are empty or have little traffic despite massive MSM media coverage, and many events are poorly attended. "That's because brands aren't creating or joining groups -- the most fundamental aspect of the metaverse's social structure, says Linda Zimmer in Business Communicators of Second Life."
At the same time she has reported on how Penguine, the publishers and others are opening a new presence, a virtual one, in SL.
It goes without saying that there is no point in moving in and then not joining the community. Its just like moving house. Some people just don't know how to get out and become a member of the community - I wonder how the marcom executives get a life if they can't get one in a virtual community?
At the same time she has reported on how Penguine, the publishers and others are opening a new presence, a virtual one, in SL.
It goes without saying that there is no point in moving in and then not joining the community. Its just like moving house. Some people just don't know how to get out and become a member of the community - I wonder how the marcom executives get a life if they can't get one in a virtual community?
Why blogging matters - six expert views
Dan Greenfield - VP Corporate Communications - EarthLink – Bernaisesource
Invites you to join a converastion with:
David Armano - Creative VP - Digitas – Logic + Emotion
Peter Blackshaw - CMO - Nielsen Buzz Metrics – Consumer Generated Media
David Churbuck - VP Global Web Marketing - Lenovo – Churbuck
Dan Greenfield - VP Corporate Communications - EarthLink – Bernaisesource
Eric Kintz – VP Global Marketing Strategy - Hewlett-Packard – Marketing Excellence
Will Waugh – Senior Director, Communications - ANA – Marketing Maestros
Technology has enabled customers to dramatically change their attitude towards marketing. As a result, they are tuning out in increasing numbers and talking back. Customers are shifting massively their entertainment and information consumption away from traditional media to the new web space.
Invites you to join a converastion with:
David Armano - Creative VP - Digitas – Logic + Emotion
Peter Blackshaw - CMO - Nielsen Buzz Metrics – Consumer Generated Media
David Churbuck - VP Global Web Marketing - Lenovo – Churbuck
Dan Greenfield - VP Corporate Communications - EarthLink – Bernaisesource
Eric Kintz – VP Global Marketing Strategy - Hewlett-Packard – Marketing Excellence
Will Waugh – Senior Director, Communications - ANA – Marketing Maestros
Technology has enabled customers to dramatically change their attitude towards marketing. As a result, they are tuning out in increasing numbers and talking back. Customers are shifting massively their entertainment and information consumption away from traditional media to the new web space.
How to influence nespapers 'social media' experiments
The moves by some publications into 'social medi' was examined last Saturday by Erick Schonfeld. He posted about how people can influence some of the ideas currently being tried by some publishers and how they can be influenced.
He writes:
Watch out for some people in the publicity industry using these idea - and comming to grief.
He writes:
Gannett newspapers are turning to their readers to help research and write stories in a new "crowdsourcing" initiative. The idea is to tap into the knowledge, and even investigative zeal, of readers to help cover stories for the papers. It sounds like USA Today wants to look more like Digg.
But figuring out how to tap into the culture of participation without abandoning journalistic objectivity is going to be tricky. Once people figure out that they can influence what goes on the front pages of Gannett's 90 local papers across the country, they will try to game the system. As Digg is finding out, giving the crowd a voice comes with its own set of issues.
Watch out for some people in the publicity industry using these idea - and comming to grief.
Who is offering homes for your content
By Erick Schonfeld, Business 2.0 Magazine has an interesting view about file sharing start-ups.
I list them here but he has some excellent comments.
I list them here but he has some excellent comments.
| Sharing Made Simple | |||
| Several new services hope to profit from letting people exchange big digital files. | |||
| SERVICE | HOW IT WORKS | COST | BUSINESS MODEL |
| AllPeers | Transfers files to your buddies through a BitTorrent-based add-on to Firefox. | Free | Content delivery fees, peer-produced media sales |
| Glide | Stores and shares digital media via browser-based "desktop" or smartphone | 300MB free; $5/month for 1GB; $10/month for 4GB | Subscription fees, software licensing |
| MediaMax | Stores digital photos, movies, and other files on the Web | 25GB free; $5-$30/month for 100-1,000GB | Subscription fees; software licensing; advertising |
| Myfabrik | Sends links to shared files stored on the Web or a Maxtor Fusion hard drive | 1GB free; 49 cents/month for each additional GB | Subscription fees, software licensing |
| Pando | E-mail attachments initiates BitTorrent-based P2P transfer backed by server | Free | Content delivery fees, advertising |
| YouSendIt | Sends links to uploaded files good for 14 days; designed for business use | 100MB free; $5-$30/month for more | Subscription fees |
| Zapr | Turns any file or folder on your PC into a shareable Web link | Free | Advertising |
The future of blogging
We'll know more about blogs next week, when Technorati publishes its quarterly review of the 'sphere. I suspect we'll see some shakeout in terms of bloggers who have begun posting less frequently.
Frank suggests that the novelty of blogging must be wearing off, if not for the writers, then for the readers.
Well I disagree.
There will be churn. There is a limit to the total number which will be limited by population/broadband penetration of the internet.
Mostly there will be new widgets (video on my blog - woweeee!), there will be more excitement in new areas of blogging - politics this week, economics next.
Most of all will be the realisation by organisations that they need digital footprint.
The loss of competitive edge for today's sales and long term sales growth will be tied to the number of comments and hyperlinks that add to the on-line property.
Its an asset, stupid!
It delivers people to your online store who will buy your fastest and slowest moving stock on-line and at minimal cost.
Companies need web pages that link to their site - economic fact.
Blogs are good at creating loads of such pages - Internet fact.
Shakeout, maybe, diminution? only if the facts of economic life pass organisations by.
Frank suggests that the novelty of blogging must be wearing off, if not for the writers, then for the readers.
Well I disagree.
There will be churn. There is a limit to the total number which will be limited by population/broadband penetration of the internet.
Mostly there will be new widgets (video on my blog - woweeee!), there will be more excitement in new areas of blogging - politics this week, economics next.
Most of all will be the realisation by organisations that they need digital footprint.
The loss of competitive edge for today's sales and long term sales growth will be tied to the number of comments and hyperlinks that add to the on-line property.
Its an asset, stupid!
It delivers people to your online store who will buy your fastest and slowest moving stock on-line and at minimal cost.
Companies need web pages that link to their site - economic fact.
Blogs are good at creating loads of such pages - Internet fact.
Shakeout, maybe, diminution? only if the facts of economic life pass organisations by.
Is PR ready for the video revolution?
This is getting to be boring. Every day, it seems, I tell of a new video news medium.
I wonder how the PR industry is coping?
Friday, it wasn't just Dow Jones who launched a bunch of online video channels (see "Dow Jones TV: Can Print Guys Do Video?), so did CNNMoney.com.
So did 60 local newspapers in the UK.....
So now we need to find the capabilities that turn us into video experts....
I wonder how the PR industry is coping?
Friday, it wasn't just Dow Jones who launched a bunch of online video channels (see "Dow Jones TV: Can Print Guys Do Video?), so did CNNMoney.com.
So did 60 local newspapers in the UK.....
So now we need to find the capabilities that turn us into video experts....
Blog style - a new form of magazine?
B2Day is finally pulling back the covers on Business 2.0 Beta, its new experiment with blogging at the magazine.
As Its editor has mentioned, from now on, the blog you are reading will be called The Next Net and the official Business 2.0 blog will be B2 Beta. What they are doing is essentially launching a mini-network of blogs all written by B2 staffers (including reporters, editors, and even our art director and a photography editor), and collecting all the posts on B2 Beta.
This is interesting for PR people. From now on they will be pitching to a blogger, not a journalist.... I wonder what the Journos will say on their blogs about time wasting pitches - will they name names?
As Its editor has mentioned, from now on, the blog you are reading will be called The Next Net and the official Business 2.0 blog will be B2 Beta. What they are doing is essentially launching a mini-network of blogs all written by B2 staffers (including reporters, editors, and even our art director and a photography editor), and collecting all the posts on B2 Beta.
This is interesting for PR people. From now on they will be pitching to a blogger, not a journalist.... I wonder what the Journos will say on their blogs about time wasting pitches - will they name names?
Typepad gets voice message widget
The millions of visitors to blogs now have a new option for leaving their comments. They can record messages in their own voices using a computer microphone. The Evoca Browser Mic. available as a Widget for TypePad, now makes it possible for blog readers to leave voice comments using the Typepad blogging platform.
THE DOUBLE PARADOX
This is a case study from 1999. It is still relevant today:
Critically, there is an issue of the real effect of activism on reputation and the effect of reputation on the value of companies.
Is the effect of the internet on markets more potent today than ten or even six years ago?
Do the financial markets reflect the trading patterns of companies under pressure from Internet activism?
Is there a parallel for, say Dell and in the blogging era.
Perhaps its time to re-visit the effects of on-line activism.
It was a chill morning in London on October the 16 1986 and a day that was to createThere is a lot to take out of this.
one of the pivotal events in Internet Activism. It was the day when a campaign was
started to put McDonalds in the centre of anti-corporatism by a number of activists.
It gave rise to the longest civil court case in history between David Morris and Helen
Steel and McDonald's.
The appearance of a Web site created by the activists, came in February 1996 when
Morris and Steel launched the McSpotlight site from a laptop connected to the
internet via a mobile phone outside a McDonald's store in Central London. The
Website was accessed more than a million times in its first month. It was headline
news across the world.
By any standards, the McSpotlight site is big and has an amazing amount of content.
A large part of the content is critical of McDonald's and some is allegedly libellous.
£60,000 settlement against Morris and Steel, the Web site was accessed 2.2 million
times.
The first paradox is that McDonald's won the court case but the allegations are still on
the Web site available to this day (and is mirrored across the world so that if it is
turned off in one country, its content can be accessed from another).
The second paradox is that with so much criticism about the company available for all
to see, the company remains one of the most successful food retailers in the UK and
across the world. McDonald's ten years after the court case was the largest and best-known global foodservice retailer it had more than 24,500 restaurants in 116 countries. Its share price was four time higher than when the McSpotlight site was launched and dividends per share were up 44%.
It there a linkage between corporate performance and Internet criticism? Will there be
a link as the Internet expands?
There are a number of considerations. The first is that all this happened a long time
ago. In 1997, at the end of the court case and 18 month after the launch of
McSpotlight, the on-line population was 57 million (in 1999 it was 179 million) of which
only 960,000 were in the UK (over 10 million in 1999)
Today, the McSpotlight site is really a gateway site for people who are interested in
anti-corporate activism. Compared to many other activist issues, McDonalds is a
relative side show.
McDonalds significance for most people is its brand strength. It is a company that
delivers on its promise (caviar no, fries yes, silver service no, in a box with a paper
tissue yes). In this respect it is trusted by consumers.
The apparent double paradox is, in fact a matter of timing and the fast changing
dynamic of the Internet.
The Consumer Opinion pages of Yahoo show a list of rogue sites which reputation
managers should visit to see examples of what may affect them at any time.
Smaller brands in a virtual community ten times as big, may not be so lucky. So just
when should a company get scared of the Internet?
Critically, there is an issue of the real effect of activism on reputation and the effect of reputation on the value of companies.
Is the effect of the internet on markets more potent today than ten or even six years ago?
Do the financial markets reflect the trading patterns of companies under pressure from Internet activism?
Is there a parallel for, say Dell and in the blogging era.
Perhaps its time to re-visit the effects of on-line activism.
Eleven Years ago - The Internet and PR
Eleven Years ago this week Dr Reginald Watts, Dr Jon White, Tom Brannan and David Phillips explored the future in a Public Relations future gazing symposium.
This is how I introduced the Internet:
‘The new media will enfranchise the individual
with more one-to-one, one to many and many to many communication which will be
easy by personal ‘phones, E-mail and video conferencing. Person-to-person-to machine
and database communication will be more important, electronically managed
and more global. Increasingly this broth threatens brands and corporate reputation and
needs professionalism to immunise (our organisations) or doctor the effects of the
brew.
‘In its most perfect form, reputation management sustains relationships with publics
in a state of equilibrium during both evolution and in crisis. This enhances corporate
goodwill (a tradable asset).
‘The big change is that many-to-many global communication brings with it loss of
‘ownership’ of language, culture and knowledge and that there is a breakdown in
intellectual property rights, copyright and much plagiarism. This is already a major
problem.
‘News now travels further and faster and is mixed with history, fantasy and
technology. Reputation in crisis is even more vulnerable. At a growing rate, the new
media uses reputation as ‘merchandise’, stripped from the foundations which created
it, then traded for pieces of silver - and at a discount’. ...
(IPR symposium in 1995)
This is how I introduced the Internet:
‘The new media will enfranchise the individual
with more one-to-one, one to many and many to many communication which will be
easy by personal ‘phones, E-mail and video conferencing. Person-to-person-to machine
and database communication will be more important, electronically managed
and more global. Increasingly this broth threatens brands and corporate reputation and
needs professionalism to immunise (our organisations) or doctor the effects of the
brew.
‘In its most perfect form, reputation management sustains relationships with publics
in a state of equilibrium during both evolution and in crisis. This enhances corporate
goodwill (a tradable asset).
‘The big change is that many-to-many global communication brings with it loss of
‘ownership’ of language, culture and knowledge and that there is a breakdown in
intellectual property rights, copyright and much plagiarism. This is already a major
problem.
‘News now travels further and faster and is mixed with history, fantasy and
technology. Reputation in crisis is even more vulnerable. At a growing rate, the new
media uses reputation as ‘merchandise’, stripped from the foundations which created
it, then traded for pieces of silver - and at a discount’. ...
(IPR symposium in 1995)
Sunday, November 05, 2006
Internet corrupted by fraudsters, liars and cheats - suprise!
In PR we have known for over a decade about its potential and the associated hazards have been well documented for nearly as long.
The creator of the world wide web told the Guardian that the internet is in danger of being corrupted by fraudsters, liars and cheats. Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the Briton who founded the web in the early 1990s, says that if the internet is left to develop unchecked, "bad phenomena" will erode its usefulness. He warns that "there is a great danger that it becomes a place where untruths start to spread more than truths, or it becomes a place which becomes increasingly unfair in some way". He singles out the rise of blogging as one of the most difficult areas for the continuing development of the web, because of the risks associated with inaccurate, defamatory and uncheckable information.
'Managing Your Reputation in Cyberspace' originally published by Thorogood and now available here, showed a wide array of potential threats. It was also one of the first publications (Shel Holtz was the other key author at the time) to seek solutions.
Mojo launces videoblog
MojoPages, a new social search venture, has adopted a documentary-style videoblog to build buzz around its forthcoming launch, while engaging users even before a beta website has launched, to help with aspects such as design and usability.
The website, which will rank businesses in line with user ratings, aims to improve on standard directory-style services such as Yellow Pages.
MojoPages is based around a simple idea: “Do a great job and people will say great things. Offer poor services and/or inflated prices and you will be judged on those criteria as well”.
Source e-consultancy.
The website, which will rank businesses in line with user ratings, aims to improve on standard directory-style services such as Yellow Pages.
MojoPages is based around a simple idea: “Do a great job and people will say great things. Offer poor services and/or inflated prices and you will be judged on those criteria as well”.
Source e-consultancy.
Cancer Research podcast
Cancer Research UK is adding its voice to the digital airwaves by launching a brand new podcast this week.
The charity will produce a magazine-style programme every month, showcasing every aspect of Cancer Research UK’s work – from world-class scientific research to health awareness campaigns; from fundraising efforts to survivors’ stories and much, much more.
Friday, November 03, 2006
What is it like to get into Second Life?
The BBC's Mark Ward is taking the journey and reporting on it as well.
Now, I wonder about the experiences of others.... It would make a good story for Text100 and Crayon.
Now, I wonder about the experiences of others.... It would make a good story for Text100 and Crayon.
Freinds or markets
Andrew Lark has been talking about public relations evaluation again..
His latest contribution goes as follows:
I have a problem with the first.
There is a degree of truth but the key surely is the extent to which the constituent wants to engage their community with the organisation (introduce them to the organisation/ product etc). This may also be the extent to which they want to change the organisation, service, product, aims etc.
In evaluating relationships we need to look after the friend who seeks to offer their best knowledge, opinion, and contacts.
The 'Marketing Objective' is a small part of what we seek.
Surely what is most helpful is the value (not just money) that attaches to both the organisation and constituency.
His latest contribution goes as follows:
My view has been that the degree to which actions intended from any marketing activity - say downloads - occur is proportional to participation in that media by readers/ views/ the community. For this reason I like Scoble's idea on measuring media engagement.I agree with the last point. Reach is, these days, almost irrelevant.This will require a step-change in thinking by communicators. Rather than looking at the reach of publications, we need to think in terms of participation.
I have a problem with the first.
There is a degree of truth but the key surely is the extent to which the constituent wants to engage their community with the organisation (introduce them to the organisation/ product etc). This may also be the extent to which they want to change the organisation, service, product, aims etc.
In evaluating relationships we need to look after the friend who seeks to offer their best knowledge, opinion, and contacts.
The 'Marketing Objective' is a small part of what we seek.
Surely what is most helpful is the value (not just money) that attaches to both the organisation and constituency.
Job hunting to be bigger online
On-Line Recruitment is suggesting that over the next 5 years (to 2011), the e-recruitment market will grow significantly both in scale and importance.
The idea of six degrees of separation, allied to the Long Tail may mean there are other options when it comes to recruiting - or finding a job.
Indeed, some are predicting that recruitment will be close to travel – the most successful sector in terms of the online business model. A new Market Assessment report, E-Recruitment, from market intelligence providers Key Note, forecasts that by 2011 nearly 2.1 million jobs will be on offer via online recruitment websites, with a monthly average of 32.5 million unique visitors to these sites.Something in me suggests that this is not the way it is going to be.
The idea of six degrees of separation, allied to the Long Tail may mean there are other options when it comes to recruiting - or finding a job.
Hubble Bubble - more silly prices for companies
Social media site Reddit has been bought by Wired publisher Condé Nast for an undisclosed sum, said to be $65m. At that price it is an expensive acquisition.
Reddit, which enables users to suggest and rank stories, is a user-generated news aggregator, with stories rising to the top based on popularity. It is little cousin to Digg which is rumoured to be in talks with MySpace owner, News Corp.
Reddit, which enables users to suggest and rank stories, is a user-generated news aggregator, with stories rising to the top based on popularity. It is little cousin to Digg which is rumoured to be in talks with MySpace owner, News Corp.
Iraq - a case study for PR practitioners from the BBC
The BBC's Paul Reynolds has been looking at the propaganda, diplomatic and public relations lessons of the Iraq war in this US election week.
I understand that Mr Reynolds does not know what PR is (how many journalists do) and so he is forgiven for mistakes of nomenclature.
His quote from Walter Cronkite brings back memories:
This was a moment when war was decive but propaganda diplomacy was a failiure.
If only they had use public relations, that last, and perhaps this present war, would have been less bloody.
I understand that Mr Reynolds does not know what PR is (how many journalists do) and so he is forgiven for mistakes of nomenclature.
His quote from Walter Cronkite brings back memories:
"To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe, in the face of the evidence, the optimists who have been wrong in the past. To suggest we are on the edge of defeat is to yield to unreasonable pessimism. To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic, yet unsatisfactory, conclusion.
"On the off-chance that military and political analysts are right, in the next few months we must test the enemy's intentions, in case this is indeed his last big gasp before negotiations.
"But it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors but as an honourable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could.
"This is Walter Cronkite. Good night."
This was a moment when war was decive but propaganda diplomacy was a failiure.
If only they had use public relations, that last, and perhaps this present war, would have been less bloody.
Making video clear
For the PR and News industry there is now software to make poor photographs and video crisp and clear. Motion DSP’s new Ikena system cleans up on overcompressed videos and the grainy, blured video you tend to get with mobilephone camaras.
With so much happening in the video space, fired by the combination of broadband and YouTube, video is becomming an important part ofthe communication mix for PR.
With so much happening in the video space, fired by the combination of broadband and YouTube, video is becomming an important part ofthe communication mix for PR.
The initial Linux-based product (including hardware) costs $30,000, but this type of interpolation-based cleaning will become more affordable before too long. Examples of what is achieved are at at MotionDSP.com.
Software and imaging chips for better video have been a growing business for the past few years. Video -- both from consumers and security cameras -- is exploding, but a lot of it is blurry and finding something on video remains a primitive art. Some of the notable start-ups include NuCore (imaging chips for consumer SLR and video cameras), 3VR Security (a search engine for security camera video) and Pixim, (an imaging chip which captures better images in glare or low light).Intelligence community wiki
The intelligence community in the US has announced its own wiki, Intellipedia, and is promoting it as the future of American intelligence gathering and sharing - reports Web User.
However, unlike Wikipedia, it's not open to all - only security agents and intelligence analysts have access to it.
John Negroponte, the US director of national intelligence, announced Intellipedia yesterday. Like Wikipedia, the site will allow users to add and edit content.
However, unlike Wikipedia, it's not open to all - only security agents and intelligence analysts have access to it.
MySpace isn't fun anymore
MySpace is moving to stop its users illegally uploading music content by introducing fingerprinting technology to the website. The site will scan all uploaded music, check it against a database of rights holders and block any protected content.
Users who repeatedly try to upload content illegally will be barred from the site.
The fingerprint technology is to be licenced from software firm Gracenote.
MySpace is now operating like a Music Agent, Cigar an' all.
Now, if the music industry was half bright (OK 25% bright), it would understand the dynamic of The Long Tail. It would encourage people to spread the music - and the date of the next gig, the price of tickets, the shop for consumables, the book etc etc etc - all of which are more valuable that the price/margin on a CD or download.
These margins are available forever - longer than copyright - and the music moguls can't see it.
So, folks go look for real musicians who want to spread their music AND make a fortune instead of givving it away to agents and Labels.
Users who repeatedly try to upload content illegally will be barred from the site.
The fingerprint technology is to be licenced from software firm Gracenote.
MySpace is now operating like a Music Agent, Cigar an' all.
Now, if the music industry was half bright (OK 25% bright), it would understand the dynamic of The Long Tail. It would encourage people to spread the music - and the date of the next gig, the price of tickets, the shop for consumables, the book etc etc etc - all of which are more valuable that the price/margin on a CD or download.
These margins are available forever - longer than copyright - and the music moguls can't see it.
So, folks go look for real musicians who want to spread their music AND make a fortune instead of givving it away to agents and Labels.
Viral Marketing speak catching a cold
| Politic communication has just released this gem:
| |||
Well, let look at what really happens.
Lets go to YouTube and look at an example:
There are a lot of things about this campaign and they are mostly about a public that is being entertained and, most important, is inviting Dove into its life.
Most people find advertising gets in the way of thier life. It is intrusive - it is scream marketing.
But, if the story and the process is part of a conversation, then advertsing can work. Advertsing is in this case, an element in the conversation.
Over 400,000 people have sought out what is a Dove advertisment. This is not an add pushed in the face of someTV demographic. This is an advertsisement that people WANT to see. Not everyone. Not all people in the cinema or watching a TV programme. Just people who WANT to see it.
They have emailed it to friends, embedded it in blogs, wiki's, email and spread the word as part of their conversation in their relationships. This is about shared values between people. Values that would be very arrogant of Dove to assume it owns (it only owns some of them).
Conversations are not viruses, they are conversations. This is not someone passing on a video like a common cold. This is people passing on fun and entertainment to create better relatonships. The relationships are not owned by Dove, they are owned by people.
Stuart Bruce has an excellent blog post about this too with some excellent comments.
This is Relationship Management, not relationship marketing.
And is it effective - you bet!
Its called Public Relations.
Tone of editorial and blogs automatically evaluated
Mr Web says you can use technology to detirmine the tone of editorial and blog comment. They cite Anderson Analytics as having to capability. Google too has its own capability here and it is not rocket science anymore (I know that the PR evaluators and the PR consultants and the PR practitioners will tell you its impossible - so to0 was proving the moon is not made of green cheeze). Mr Web says:
Pity the PR industry is so slow in adopting these ideas.
Text mining of websites can fill in the gaps between quantitative and qualitative data. Due to advances in software it is now possible to automatically identify and classify favourable or unfavourable terms relating to various brands and products. It is even possible to measure and categorize actual emotional reactions.Some people will remember that as long ago as 1998, I was proposing that Neural Nets would provide and answer (I even have an academic paper published that mentions it).
"The increasing importance of social media (consumer blogging and community boards) is changing how firms should measure marketing and PR effectiveness. Yet very few firms are allocating research funds to measuring the impact of this new media short of going in to monitor what is being said a few times a month," according to Rebecca Gillan, Senior VP, Research & Guest Satisfaction, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. "Consumer blogging and community boards are a rich data source allowing firms to gain unbiased/top of mind thoughts from consumers and having a method to mine thousands of comments so that management can understand what is being said is exciting."
Pity the PR industry is so slow in adopting these ideas.
E-Zine for mobile search
SourceWire introduces us to a new magazine.
The Mobile Search Analyst is to be the first ezine focused on mobile search and its interaction with social media, social networking, mobile marketing and recommendation.
of course it would be really handy if there was an RSS feed for this new venture - There isn't so it will be mostly ignored.
The Mobile Search Analyst is to be the first ezine focused on mobile search and its interaction with social media, social networking, mobile marketing and recommendation.
of course it would be really handy if there was an RSS feed for this new venture - There isn't so it will be mostly ignored.
Second Life puts the 'facts' straight
The Second Life Herald has gone all huffy:
Rohit Bhargava, a VP for Interactive Marketing with Public Relations giant Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, has a recent post on digitalmedia wire entitled "A Gallery of Virtual 'Firsts' from Second Life." Readers of the Herald will be surpised to learn upon viewing the gallery, that the very first virtual concert in Second Life was Suzanne Vega, the first virtual clothing store was American Apparel, the very first virtual sporting event was the recent All Star Game hypervent, and the very first virtual hotel was Starwood Aloft. Nevermind the hundreds of concerts that we have attended over the last three years in second life, and nevermind the boxing matches and car races and archery tournaments and sailing regattas we have seen over the last three years, and never mind all the virtual hotels and rental properties that have existed in Second Life, and clothing stores...is this guy fucking kidding me??? This place has been wall to wall clothing stores since day one. Many people have made their livings selling virtual clothing here for the last several years. Meanwhile, a so-called new media company called Crayon has announced that it is the first business to be launched in Second Life. Very first business launched. Can you say "bullshit"?Of course now that Reuters has its own people in Second Life, we can expect a good bit of reporting on this sort of thing now.
Ethics are gets you customers
When price and quality are similar, ethical standards and corporate stability are important decision drivers when choosing to do business with one company over another. That’s what key decision makers in North America are saying according to a survey by Doremus, the business communications company, and the Financial Times.
Slightly fewer executives felt the same way in Asia. And in Europe, reliance on ethical standards as a decision-making factor trailed by more than twenty percentage points. A majority of Europeans feel ethics are important, but of little use as a differentiator.
Slightly fewer executives felt the same way in Asia. And in Europe, reliance on ethical standards as a decision-making factor trailed by more than twenty percentage points. A majority of Europeans feel ethics are important, but of little use as a differentiator.
Net growth
There are now more than 100 million web sites on the Internet, which gained 3.5 million sites last month to continue the dynamic growth seen throughout 2006. In the November 2006 survey Netcraft received responses from 101,435,253 sites, up from 97.9 million sites last month.
The 100 million site milestone caps an extraordinary year in which the Internet has already added 27.4 million sites, easily topping the previous full-year growth record of 17 million from 2005. The Internet has doubled in size since May 2004, when the survey hit 50 million.
Luddite lawyers not aware of the official statistics
Jason Stamper at Computer Business Review suggests that a UK law firm Mace & Jones is risking being labelled a bunch of Luddites by arguing that businesses should clamp down on iPod use in the workplace because it enables employees to slack off and shut out their colleagues.
The tabloids are going to love this one -- I can see the headlines now: "IPOD ADVICE FALLS ON DEAF EARS." Or how about, "LAWYERS SAY TURNING ON, TUNING IN IS COP OUT".
Of course, we know that the reverse is the case, social media enhances productivity according to the National Statistic Office (PDF)
The tabloids are going to love this one -- I can see the headlines now: "IPOD ADVICE FALLS ON DEAF EARS." Or how about, "LAWYERS SAY TURNING ON, TUNING IN IS COP OUT".
Of course, we know that the reverse is the case, social media enhances productivity according to the National Statistic Office (PDF)
Financial dodge e-monitoring
VNUNet report a survey conducted in the financial districts of London and New York suggests that Wall Street workers are more aware of compliance breaches and monitored electronic communication than their City colleagues, but are also more likely to try to dodge communication controls.
Second Life delays price hike
Linden Lab, announced on Wednesday that it was delaying price increases for its private islands until 15 November.
The company had announced in a blog entry that it was imposing hefty rate hikes as of Wednesday -- from $1,250 to $1,675 (£880) in upfront costs and from $195 to $295 (£155) in monthly maintenance fees.
BMJ to use podcasts
Independent production company, Somethin' Else has been commissioned by the British Medical Journal to produce a series of podcasts.
The programmes will feature broadcasters including former Today presenter Sue MacGregor and the BBC's Case Notes presenter, Graham Easton.
For PR people wanting to contribute to this 'new media' medical space, this could be good news.
Blogger pain
Eric Case, a Blogger product manager, acknowledges that Blogger has had a rough time recently due to what he calls "a perfect storm" of network hardware failures and other problems, reports PC Advisor.
Google has apologised for last week's Blogger outages, describing them as a 'nuisance' and not representative of the kind of service it wants to provide. In its Blogger Buzz blog it explains that a number of unplanned outages were followed by deliberate ones as the causes were tackled.However, Case said these issues will be a thing of the past once Blogger moves to a more solid and scalable platform. That's where Google is hosting the Blogger beta version, which is in limited availability and includes many new and improved features.
Still, some are running out of patience. On Sunday, after what she termed an "appalling week" of Blogger problems, Nicola Brown replicated her blog Life at the Edge over to the competing Wordpress.com platform.
Hmm.. if you have a lot of content invested in Blogger.com, this is not good.
Wiki's are the rage
It's been quite a month for the wiki community, says David Tebbutt . A kind of coming of age. SystemOne came out of the shadows, as did Itensil. SocialText officially released its 2.0 version and now it has a version that integrates with Microsoft's Sharepoint. Then to crown it all, Google went and bought JotSpot.
This latter deal is interesting as it could integrate a host of the applications Google has aquired in recent months.
This latter deal is interesting as it could integrate a host of the applications Google has aquired in recent months.
MTV gets social media
Brand Republic is reporting that MTV Networks is continuing the fightback against emerging social media youth entertainment brands like MySpace and YouTube.
It strategy include a series of acquisitions of community and gaming sites. These include NeoPets, a virtual pet website; GameTrailers, which previews and rates new computer games; and the network of US college newspapers Y2M.
It strategy include a series of acquisitions of community and gaming sites. These include NeoPets, a virtual pet website; GameTrailers, which previews and rates new computer games; and the network of US college newspapers Y2M.
It has also bought Quizilla, a community website popular with bloggers.
Friday, October 27, 2006
BBC goes a step further
In a lift the other day, I was talking to a BBC person who said that she thought the BBC now understood how far it had got behind.
Now some of that thinking is in the public domain.
Pete Clifton told the World Digital Publishing Conference in London today that the plans could include new topical pages to aggregate information from BBC and external sources on a variety of topics; increased personalisation features for the front page of BBC News Online, an expansion of the site's live statistics tracker and possibly wiki style pages that would let users contribute to compilations of information.
This is very interesting. First here is another word for PR people to wrestle with - API. get used to the idea and what it offers you.
The wiki looks interesting for communicators too.
Now some of that thinking is in the public domain.
Pete Clifton told the World Digital Publishing Conference in London today that the plans could include new topical pages to aggregate information from BBC and external sources on a variety of topics; increased personalisation features for the front page of BBC News Online, an expansion of the site's live statistics tracker and possibly wiki style pages that would let users contribute to compilations of information.
A news API could let users outside the BBC access BBC content for their own development projects.
The BBC will not be expanding its existing blogs aggressively according to Clifton but he said he hopes to launch a new blog to be written by BBC foreign correspondents around the world.
Clifton said the BBC will not be making new content for mobile phones however, it will be making more of the text, audio and video from the news website central to the expansion of its offering for mobile devices.
The Press Gazette offers more.This is very interesting. First here is another word for PR people to wrestle with - API. get used to the idea and what it offers you.
The wiki looks interesting for communicators too.
Spinning into danger
The executive editor of Computer Weekly was a runner-up in last week's Paul Foot awards for what judges called "relentless investigation" into the £12.4bn NHS IT programme in the face of "consistent obstruction and obfuscation from the Government".
Collins told Press Gazette "We're seeing Government spinning more, Government departments using the FoI (Freedom of Information) Act not to answer my questions. They're referring me to the FoI Act to get them answered, but we're still waiting for a judgement for the request we put in in 2005, 18 months later. It's very useful for a press department to refer the journalist to the FoI Act because the chances are there won't be a decision on it for 18 months."The danger the governement faces is that keeping the lid on stuff will end in tears. There is no doubt it will happen. The social media gene is out of the bottle instyle this time. last time (Usenet) it was more difficult to do, The Internet was not generally available and, above all, it was slow. No more.
Transparency has bigger advantages and is now really optional. In a week, month, year, Internet Porosity will let the cat out of the bag. It will then spread like this, morph (Internet Agency) and will become uncontrolable.
Local Newspaper TV
Now we are getting a good idea about what local newspaper TV really looks like.
Four North Wales Newspapers titles have carried video footage on their websites for the first time.
The group used the web to publish footage of two "lunatic" motorcyclists riding erratically at 100 miles per hour along the main arterial highway along the North Wales coast.
The video, in which North Wales chief constable Richard Brunstrom describes the motorists as "crazy", and says the video remind him of an episode of The Wacky Races, was used on the websites of the North Wales Pioneer, North Wales Chronicle, Rhyl Journal and Denbighshire Free Press.
The opportunities for PR video stories are huge.You, your family, friends, your influences, us, long, long partnership
I always feel that David Meerman-Scot is good but just misses the mark.
This paragraph is an example:
Well... no he isn't.
He is talking about what buyers should believe. Who is dictating to whom? The buyer, as if an when s/he get to that point in the conversation, will have a unique set of beliefs. They will be gained from a wide range of sources, views, friends, web sites, the guy at the end of the bar.... Oh... yes and perhaps a little bit from 'your organisation'.
It can't stop there. The buyer, is now potential gold in the The Long Tail and also an un exploded bomb - forever.
Can we use the word buyer anymore?
Only in marketing meetings.
This paragraph is an example:
If you agree with me about the importance of buyer personas in Web marketing, then the most important next step is you need to know what you want each of your buyer personas to believe about your organization.Absolutely right. Here he is talking about the nexus of relationships called a person going about the days toils, or a blogger, or author or wiki manager or Digg presence (etc).
Well... no he isn't.
He is talking about what buyers should believe. Who is dictating to whom? The buyer, as if an when s/he get to that point in the conversation, will have a unique set of beliefs. They will be gained from a wide range of sources, views, friends, web sites, the guy at the end of the bar.... Oh... yes and perhaps a little bit from 'your organisation'.
It can't stop there. The buyer, is now potential gold in the The Long Tail and also an un exploded bomb - forever.
Can we use the word buyer anymore?
Only in marketing meetings.
Monitor for viral - then push
David has a good tip about viral marketing. Of course you will need to be monitoring your presence to do this. While many organizations plan viral marketing campaigns to spread the word about their products or services, don’t forget that something may go viral that you didn’t start like Mentos and Diet Coke, and it may show you or your products in either a positive or negative light. You need to be monitoring the Web for your organization and brand names so you are alerted quickly about what people are talking about. And if a positive viral explosion that you didn’t initiate begins, don’t just hang on for the ride—push it along!
The passionate niche publics
TalkSPORT has achieved its highest audience figures in 18 months, allaying fears that speech radio is struggling across the board.
The nationwide talk station, which benefited from a boost in listening last quarter thanks to the World Cup, has managed to keep listeners tuned in after the final match — putting on an extra 176,000 listeners (8.4%) year on year.
Side by side isChannel 4's first foray into radio which has got off to a slow start, with the digital talk station OneWord losing 20 per cent of its listeners.
Figures released today by Rajar show Oneword's audience has fallen from 129,000 to 104,000 in the last 12 months.
Community, focused, passion filled audiences count - sound like social media to me.
WPP results - PR growth three times more than ads
WPP numbers this quarter show strongest growth was in the communications services sector, public relations and public affairs, with sales up by almost 14%, followed by branding and identity, healthcare and specialist communications, up almost 12%. Information, insight and consultancy was up over 8%, and advertising and media investment management up over 4%.
So reports the Guardian.
Oh! So PR seems to be doing well then.
So reports the Guardian.
Oh! So PR seems to be doing well then.
Eight days to compete with television
A film highlighting how journalists in the UK have learned to deliver TV news in eight days has been nominated for an international award in Berlin.
The film 8 Days features eight regional journalists working on papers including the Hull Daily Mail, the Liverpool Echo and the Manchester Evening News, getting to grips with a murder case re-enacted by Cleveland Police.
We are now seeing local newspapers develop both video and sound capability in order that they can compete with, mostly, local television. Of course, local newspapers provide considerable feedstock to national press radio and TV and can charge good money for well produced stories.
For PR, this means that there is a need to be able to offer stories as audio and video fests aw well as text and photos.
The film, made by senior lecturer at the University of Westminster David Dunkley Gyimah, focused on journalists training at Press Association's video training course.
Intel sponsors music site
Press Gazette says that the Guardian is launching a new music site today which will be sponsored by computer firm Intel.
According Guardian digital boss Emily Bell, Intel will "integrate their brand" into the site, but she said it will retain editorial independence.
This is interesting because it is another way that a good media brand can generate revenue - sponsorship.
Sponsorship as a public relations practice is well established although it is worth remembering the cost of promoting sponsorship is not cheap.
Netshine come-uppance for pharmaceutical
The PR industry is not having a good week. Its worst practices and the abominable practices of the clients it advises are being exposed all over the place. This time it is the pharmaceutical companies that are exposed with Blazing Netshine.
Patient groups special: Swallowing the best advice? - health - 27 October 2006 - New Scientist - www.newscientist.com/...
They are supposed to be grassroots organisations repre
senting the interests of people with serious diseases. But Drummond Rennie, professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and deputy editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association, believes that some patient groups are perilously close to becoming extensions of pharmaceutical companies' marketing departments. "There's a crisis here," he contends.Rather than grassroots, the word Rennie uses to describe such organisations is "astroturf". Originating in the black arts of politics and public relations, astroturfing is the practice of disguising an orchestrated campaign as a spontaneous upwelling of public opinion.
Pathetic
Talking of pathetic Web 2.0 efforts here is another one:
Internet Travel News - Langham Place opens blog - www.breakingtravelnews.com/..
With the launch last month of www.lphchat.com, Langham Place Hotel invites customers to build an online presence, posting thoughts on any topics close to their heart.
Magazine tinkers at the edges
I saw this today... It is as under-whelming as it is possible to get. Where is the picture sharing, the comment from the stars and the punters in podcasts? How much is going to make YouTube? Are there going to be Skype conferences and conversations on Skype?
Judge for your selves...
Uncut revamps website amid sales decline - BR Bulletin - Advertising, Marketing, Media and PR news b - www.brandrepublic.com/...
Judge for your selves...
IPC Ignite!'s Uncut has overhauled its website, including a design revamp and the introduction of a daily news service, as the monthly music and film title battles to reverse a circulation slide for its print version.
The news pages of the website include exclusive stories and a blog by Uncut editor Allen Jones, with the first covering Bob Dylan's tour of North America.
Anthony Thornton, IPC Ignite! digital editor-in-chief, said: "Uncut's daily news service is the perfect complement to the distinctive world famous in depth coverage in the monthly magazine. Uncut's no longer a monthly event, it's daily."
Vanilla marketing just won't do
Andrew Warmsley says that
Corporate blogs have come in for a lot of stick in recent weeks - the latest being the efforts of Wal-Mart to persuade us that they are a nice bunch of people by sponsoring two bloggers to drive a camper van around the US, staying nights in the company's car parks.
What caused this one to come unstuck was its disingenuous nature. The blog neither revealed the backing of the firm (via a body called Working Families for Wal-Mart), nor the professional status of the participants, and in doing so broke one of the basic rules of blogging: don't hide the truth.
This rule has emerged not because of the high ethical standards of bloggers, but because they have learned that given the vast resources of the collective blogosphere, readers are going to find you out. So it is ultimately pragmatism that keeps bloggers on the straight and narrow, and while you will find inaccurate statements in blogs, you will almost always find them challenged and hotly debated.
While the experiences of the Wal-Mart bloggers were real, its credibility was fatally compromised. Eventually, the PR agency behind it, Edelman, apologised publicly amid derision online.
Most corporate blogs do not attempt to fake it on such a scale - but they are strangely unappetising nevertheless. They are one of those strange beasts that emerge from the internet from time to time - generally giving neither the personal views of a commentator nor the official corporate statement.
They exist in an odd limbo between these states, and it is this perhaps that makes them thoroughly unsatisfying.
In the UK, the marketing team behind one popular beer has maintained a blog for just over a year, talking about the brand and the events it sponsors. Full marks for effort, but as it attracts hardly any comment from real consumers, you find yourself asking why they bother. As a drinker of its brand, I am supremely uninterested in the fact that the marketing manager has 'had his head in spreadsheets' for the last few weeks - and as a marketer it looks like a clumsy attempt to put a human face to the brand.
And, yes, he's right. It seems hard for people to think beyond scream marketing, the integrated consistent message across all channels for communication and vanilla marketing.
It is going to take a long time for the change to take place.
This is where PR has to play a part. We have to think in terms of conversations not messages - tough call I guess.
Andrew Walmsley on digital: Clumsy attempt at being compelling - BR Bulletin - Advertising, Marketin - www.brandrepublic.com/...It is going to take a long time for the change to take place.
This is where PR has to play a part. We have to think in terms of conversations not messages - tough call I guess.
Parsons - Web 2.0 bubble at bursting point
Michael Parson at the Times warns of the end of the Web 2.0 bubble:
Social networking is one of the building blocks of the Web 2.0 dream: bringing together like-minded people online to create a community of interest that can share knowledge, information and resources and make useful contacts. However, we must not forget its older, fleshly incarnation – the real networking event. During the height of the dotcom boom you had to fight off invitations to internet networking events. Societies like First Tuesday, The Chemistry, and Land of the New Giants brought together badly dressed people with business cards to exchange lies about their website's readership and drink a lot of nasty white wine. After the crash, decadent gatherings like this became much less popular. Yet this week I've received invitations to several, which perhaps means it's time to start selling tech stocks again. It's a market top.
Top PR in Scotland - CIPR Award winners
NHS Lothian lifted the award for Scottish Public Sector Team of the Year, with Glasgow-based 3x1 Public Relations taking the Consultancy Team of the Year and VisitScotland the In-house Team award.
The City of Edinburgh Council scooped three top awards, in addition to the Grand Prix: Issues or Crisis Management Campaign; Newsletter, Newspaper or Magazine; and In-house
campaign. Their Grand Prix award was for their work on the G8 Summit.
Getting the low down that drives share price
Putting blogs to work for Wall Street | CNET News.com - news.com.com has an interesting take on what can now drive share price - Social Media.
Hmmm.... never mind the city... PR needs this too
Collective Intellect has created a service that combs through thousands of blogs, news sites, chat rooms and other Web sites every day and then surfaces rumors and news reports that might be of interest to traders or corporate public-relations executives. Start-ups like Monitor 110 provide similar services.
The idea is to give traders back the early and easy access to critical data that they used to have when this information came through many fewer channels. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, a Bloomberg terminal or subscriptions to news services could give you a jump on the hoi polloi. Today, it's the masses that often have the jump, thanks to blogs and other tipster sites.
"They aren't sure where a story will break and how it will break," said Don Springer, Collective Intellect's CEO. "Traders are going crazy."
Hmmm.... never mind the city... PR needs this too
'Blazing Netshine' ... the killer app
Dan Gillmore wrote this week.....
Some PR and marketing folks have, as you'd expect, taken word-of-mouth as just another great opportunity to sell stuff. Fine, if it's up-front and honest. But word-of-mouth marketing should not mean, as Procter & Gamble and other companies have been doing with such cynicism, getting people to talk up products without disclosing the corporate inducements behind them. "Beyond lame" was one typical reader response to a P&G site, made to look as if it was written by users of its Secret Sparkle Body Sprays. In reality, the site is filled with advertising copy. If any friend of mine did this to me, that person would have one less friend.
A world of conversational communications can be so unstructured at times that the people who once thought corporate messaging was a command-and-control operation can't abide the inexactitude of it all. Understandably so, because they came to their positions in a simpler time, when the message went through a stratified system to specific people.
But the complexities don't justify retreat. They do justify appropriate caution, especially in the kinds of enterprises where proverbial loose lips actually sink ships, such as the military. In the end, the conversation is about culture. If senior people don't believe in the value of conversational communications, they won't happen. But bloggers aren't going away, and younger employees, customers, et al, now think this kind of communication is natural. And it's worth remembering a simple demographic fact: They are the future.
Thank you Dan. In particular, the comment about culture.
Perhaps we have to spend more time looking at what we know about culture to help understanding of what I have called 'Blazing Netshine'. It seeks out cynicism, corporate messaging and command and control. It encourages porosity and uses Internet agency and is the killer app that will defeat scream marketing.
Manipulating information - is not an option
Corporate Blogging: What Could Go Wrong? - www.cioinsight.com notes:
It is going to be a long haul. Companies do need to understand that the combination of available social media and broadband has changed the game.
The majority of companies spend too much time worrying about unfiltered comments getting out. They should be more concerned with what happens when lawyers, executives and PR/marketing folks get the notion that blogs and other such media are nothing more than a new way to manipulate information.
It is going to be a long haul. Companies do need to understand that the combination of available social media and broadband has changed the game.
XPRL needed
COMPANYNEWSGROUP - CONTACTS - www.companynewsgroup.com makes a number of points about Europaen financial reporting. The news is better but it highlights the need to integrate XPRL with XBRL in financial reporting.
Generally speaking, this year listed companies have improved the quality of their Investor Relations websites. There is a 15% increase in results over all of the indexes studied and a 20% increase over the indexes in the Euronext zone.
Also noticeable this year is the appearance of new practices such as financial glossaries, business-sector statistics, Investor Relations forums and RSS feeds.
European listed companies have very good practices when it comes to publishing their basic data: 100% of companies put their press releases and annual reports online and 96% have a section on "corporate governance" for their investors.
We also note that 95% of companies give their market price on their website and 65% place it directly on their homepage.
This year has shown an improvement in websites' interactivity. Companies are making increasing use of dynamic documents and rebroadcasting audio/video of their financial events: 55% of companies offer their annual report in Html/Flash format, 65% broadcast the webcast of their analysts' meetings and 30% rebroadcast their Shareholders' Meetings online.
With regard to interactive services, although 65% of the sites studied offer press releases via email, only 30% make it possible to receive email alerts for financial events and 34% of companies offer a portfolio-simulator service.
The comprehensiveness of the information given on companies' websites is generally satisfactory: 93% of companies disclose information concerning analysts' meetings and 87% disclose information concerning Shareholders' Meetings. Although 75% of companies publish management biographies, they are less willing to disclose management dealings (26%) and management compensation (24%).
We also note that tools linked to market price are little used by companies: 35% provide a technical analysis tool, 25% enable comparison of their market price to that of their competitors and 9% have a market-price graphic linked to the news.
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Toni, we see here the break between old and new PR paradigm.
These concepts are significant to the constituencies involved. The exchange also demonstrates that we have a lot to lean about the nature of conversational relationships.
Historically, a person would provide a paper and circulate it for approval and comment – and that is what happened.
Now, there is a different way.
What if the paper is made available using any of the many forms of social media. It needs to be in one of the formats that can be progressively opened up for wider consultation, contribution and participation. It can be surrounded by debate and discussion (email, IM, Blog, wiki, Skype conference, meeting, congress etc), progressively it becomes the common property of all active, aware and latent participants.
This is not soft v hard, old v new it is just a way of creating a conversation. It is as old as mankind and as new as the Internet.
Well entrenched and robust views are still available in this model and progressively more evidence, research and resource can and should be added to enhance its value (peer reviewed knowledge added to any property enhances its value). Reasoned consideration can be in the hands of all participants – even the whole world.
The new way needs avail contribution to a conversation among active, aware and latent participants.
The nature of transparency, porosity and agency is the at the heart of this way of doing business.
As it turns out, you posting the papers, is a move in this direction but suppose the debate and discussion used modern communications tools. Would that not be more useful powerful and relevant?
The very fact that the initial paper is an old fashioned word processed document set the agenda.
The medium affected the message as much as the contribution by the participants.
One alternative might start like this: http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dhd98n6g_26f2twh2 and can then be moved to any number of channels for communication such as as a wiki, word document attachment by email, an email, a web page, a blog post, an instant message or even as (dead tree) paper.
Public Relations is changed but we have to walk the talk.
Ignorance, of course, is no defence when the participants are …… communicators?