A Blogging Cardinal -simple as ABC

Looking to marry the Roman Catholic Church's 2,000-year-history with the modern world's technological bent, Boston's Cardinal Sean O'Malley on Thursday became the first U.S. cardinal to launch a blog. This from Reuters.

Another case study in the making from 62 year old Sean.

How search disintermediates sales

From Phil Gomes

It just made me smile

This is one of my favorite tricks...

When SEO reps call me, I keep them on the phone long enough for me to
do a Google search on "search engine optimization."

Invariably, the company's name doesn't come up in the first 25 pages. I
tell the rep this.

"Well," the guy stammers. "It's a crowded space out there."

"Crowded?" I ask. "You want to talk about 'crowded.' One of our clients
sells BEANS!!!"

That usually gets the guy off the phone.

The thing here is that the person on the receiving end of the call can look up the company and check it out. The product performance can be evaluated during the sales presentation.

The salesman can create the link but the web site confines the sales script.

This also means that media comment, blog comment and a range of other reports about the company and product are part of the communication process initiated by the salesperson.

Sales and Public Relations are part of the same communication continuum.

Getting traffic from del.icio.us

From Sally Fallcow at New Media Release Discussion list:

the There was a great thread in the Search Engine Watch forums yesterday
about getting traffic from social media sites like del.icio.us

1. Write Good, Relevent, Useful Content.
I know its an obvious one, but it's the one to remember. People will
only bookmark what they find interesting. Watch what's popular on
del.icio.us for a couple of days to get an idea.

2. Get Popular On Another Site, Leap Frog to Del.icio.us
If you can make it to sites like Digg.com, BoingBoing, Kottke,
instructables.com - anything influential - chances are the cascading
effect of the web, will have your site be popular on del.icio.us too.

3. Use Del.icio.us Like a Directory
Find the best articles tutorials and bookmark them on del.icio.us with
the appropriate tags. People searching for similar content, matching
your tags, may find your site and (if they like it) bookmark it,
building your "capital" so to speak.

4. Make sure all your content has an "Add to Del.icio.us" link (along
with email to a friend etc) and as your content is found, it'll be
picked up by visitors and maybe even added to del.icio.us.

There are a few initiatives in progress to assist PR folk to take
advantage of these ideas. PRESSfeed, the content syndication service
that was built specifically for SEO-PR purposes, is one of them. All
enterprise level clients get social media bookmarking links, Technorati
tags and "easy subscribe" buttons for all the better known RSS
readers on their articles, news updates or press releases.

You can see it on the PRESSfeed site at
http://www.press-feed.com/results/news/index.php Put your cursor on
the RSS icon to see the drop down menu for subscribe buttons

http://www.press-feed.com/results/news/news.php?include=58189 At the
end of this article on the future of search and content syndication
you'll see the tags and the list of social bookmarking links.

Its nice - Yale agrees with Leverwealth about Marketing

I owe this to Jackie Danicki.

Yale School of Management is saying:

Effective leaders need to be able to own and frame problems and take real responsibility for solving those problems, and then work across organizational boundaries in order to solve those problems. The curriculum in the past was broken down by these disciplinary silos and because of that, got in the way of effective management and leadership…[W]e’re replacing the disciplinary courses that mapped onto the functional silos in organizations with new courses that are actually organized around the key constituencies that a manager needs to engage in order to be effective.

We now offer a course on the customer rather than a course in marketing, a course on the investor rather than a course in finance.

Marketing is slipping further away as a managment discipline.

Manchester WiMax

There is a rumour going round that English conerbation round Manchester (2.2 million people) is to get high Speed wireles Internet access. It looks like this could be a competitors to existing services both in terms of speed and reach.

Compared to the feint hearted Wimax offerings eleswhere (slow, patchy and tentative Milton Keynes is an example - where whole villages are still on dial up - Nash being an example) , The manchester service could compete on comparable terms with the likes of BT.

Blog ethic

Fact: Bloggers are becoming as influential as reporters. So when do they cross the threshold of citizen journalist and become de facto journalists? From what I can tell, many bloggers would be insulted to be called reporters.

Are we entering a journalistic/PR no man's land? What ethical considerations apply to bloggers?

Should Bloggers check facts?

My experience is that PR departments do not respond to Blogger requests.

Bloggers have to find another way.

Should bloggers seek a second source. Yes.

Should Bloggers only use reliable sources e.g. BBC, CNN Company bloggers? No. But it helps and then second and third sources are even more important.

Dan Geenfield asks about

...a news story run about your company, but the reporter never contacted your company for a comment. Makes us mad and clients mad. Journalists should know better we say.

But how about when bloggers post a comment about your company or pull comments from a company blog without contacting the PR department? Are we still as angry? My guess is probably not.

Would we still be as mad if the blogger was also a mainstream reporter or represented a mainstream publication? Madder yes, but as mad as a “pure reporter?”

So, this is a two ways street but having PR capacity and capability to respond is hard. There is a need to read past posts from the blogger and each one needs on-on-one handling.

I posted this story which has stock market implications with only two sources (BBC and Reuters) and was the first blogger to do so within an hour of the first report. It was tempting to go live without a second source.

I did not even try Yahoo and Facebook... but it was an option and I would hold out little hope of a response.

Bloggers are different - they are also easy to ignore - todate.
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Electronic Roll-up - newspaper?

Roll-up laptop screens a step closer, according to scientists.

A Cambridge team have developed metal structures that can morph from flat screens into tubes and other shapes reports the BBC.

They say in the future the structures could form the basis for electronic displays that could be rolled-up and placed in a bag or pocket.

This is an area of rapid development with a number of developments in the news.

This thinking offers a next generation of flexible, thin materials for a range of applications.

E-books, Electronic Newspapers, laptops, posters, mobile phones, meeting rooms are transformed.

Yahoo 'to buy Facebook for $1bn

The BBC reports:

Internet search firm Yahoo is reported to be in talks to buy social networking website Facebook for $1bn (£527m).

US-based Facebook, popular with students, has also held separate discussions with Microsoft and Viacom, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Facebook, which allows users to put up profiles of themselves, recently signed an advertising deal with Microsoft.

A similar such website, MySpace, was bought by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation for $580m last year.

Washington Post reports Leverwealth

Well, I supose that after so many times the other way round it was inevitable that one day The Washington Post would reference a Leverwealth blog post!... :).

CIPR course has IBM speaker

CIPR has a conference which is going to cover stuff like writing a press release and how to shout at Journalists a and then at 13:55 - New media – how the web has changed PR -

Ian McNairn, Program Director Web Technology & Innovation, IBM who is also a keen photographer but does not have a blog). The important thing here is that IBM has a lot of both internal and external blogs.

This session will discuss the changes in PR using tools such as Podcasts, VideoCasts, Blogs, Wikis and RSS. You will also discover the impact that social computing has had on the reputation, visibility and reach of content. Topics include:

Looking outside the traditional media scope

The use of new media in a PR practitioners day

How to best use 'new media' to your advantage

14:35 - Case study into the power of sound as a PR tool

Jude Habib, Media Consultant and ex BBC person who is an advocate of the use of sound.

This case study will open your mind to new media techniques such as podcasting which allows you to control your content and message. Hear how using audio sound as a communication tool has benefited many campaigns from the BBC to Unicef. Is the use of sound in an imaginative way the future for media?

An interactive session using powerpoint embedded with audio

The importance of audio in making social programming sexy, the power of celebrity and the importance of good content

Explore the applications of audio (audio press releases, audio direct mail etc)

Conference venue:

Chartered Institute of Public Relations
CIPR Public Relations Centre
32 St James’s Square
London SW1Y 4JR
Tel +44 (0)20 7766 3333
http://www.cipr.co.uk/prcentre

Conference fees

• CIPR Members - £300 + VAT (£352.50 inc VAT)
• Non - CIPR members - £400 + VAT (£470.00 inc VAT)

Chunky London prices for just two session about PR today and several about the dieing art of cutting down and re-purposing trees. This is, afterall, the CIPR.
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Daily Mail is now an Online Beast in the middle market

The Daily Mail, which for years gave only token resources to its website, has seen massive online readership growth this year since it started taking the internet seriously.

Web traffic on DailyMail.co.uk has grown from 1.3 million unique users in January to the current 6.6 million, according to Associated New Media sources, quoting data from Hitwise.

This means that if you pitch a story to the Daily mail, you may want to be sure you are also pitching it to the online version as well.

It also means that in media evaluation, clips from the Mail have an on-line counterpart - a further redership of 1.3 million.

This conversion to the Internet comes not a moment to soon.The Guardian reports:

Daily Mail & General Trust today reported declines in advertising revenues at its national and regional divisions.

At national group Associated Newspapers, home to the Daily Mail and London Evening Standard, ad revenues were down 6% excluding the effect of acquisitions in the 11 months to the end of August.

Including acquisitions, advertising was down just 2%, a performance DMGT described as "robust", while circulation revenues were up 1.6%.

Classified advertising was down 9%, with display advertising suffering less at 5% down and the market showing some signs of improvement.

The guardian, of course makes profits from its online properties.

Online Video Sharing Explosion

Hitwise data shows that Market share of UK internet visits to the top 10 video sharing websites has increased 13-fold since the start of the year and has doubled in the past three months. YouTube is the dominant video sharing site, capturing 1 in every 400 UK internet visits and 2 in 3 of visits to the top 10 video sharing sites (week to 16th September 2006).

This from Heather Hopkins of Hitwise. Her analysis of the use of uptake (available on her blog) shows YouTube a tad of 60% market share.

Building teams located at many locations

Research by occupational psychologists has shown that 'virtual' teams spread out across the world need to use a variety of technologies to communicate if they are to be effective.

The researchers at Pearn Kandola found numerous problems in getting dispersed teams to work effectively and estimate that if different cultures are in the team it can take 17 weeks for its effectiveness to match a team working in the same location. The team recommend that managers use a variety of communications methods to combat the problem.

This applies to consultancies with many locations, clients with consultants in many locations and any other combination. It also applies to building communities for almost any activity.

This research is important for all people with a communications management roll.

But you read all this here before.....

Campiagn for your job or be prepared to move off-shore

A lot of UK Public Relations activity will have to move off-shore if a new EU directive is passed.

The AVMS directive, due to be implemented next year, would expand current EU broadcasting regulations to all audio-visual services, including content delivered to internet and mobile phone users.

Currently being debated by the European Council and Parliament, it would aim to ensure the protection of minors and prevent other abuses. Ofcom's view is that this is a bad thing. I agree.

However, concerns have been aired that the move would extend regulations to user-generated content such as video blogs. Britain has campaigned against the move, saying new media services should not be included (More here and more here).

To make your voice heard you need to email your MEP and email the Secretary General of the CIPR. It is the eyes and ears of the UK Public Relations Industry and, hopefully its voice.

In Yer Face Doc Martens

One of the worst advertising sites I have come across was shown to me by e-consultancy. It is the silly, all flash, Doc Martens site.

Saatchi’s MD, Neil Hughston, said to Ashley Friedlein “we’re not looking to sell products right now, we’re looking to engage likeminded people. Over time we’ll look at measuring how brand perception has changed…”
Try it for yourself... engage if you can.

Its a poster. A nice poster but a poster and belongs on a wall in Slough not on the Internet.

Engage means engage mind to mind not poster to eyeball.

Google win

Phillipe Borremans has a great post about the Google News and its dust up with the Belgium Media.

I commented yesterday.

The outcome, it seems is that Google reacted quite drastically and simply "deleted" all search results that could lead to the sites of the newspapers in question.

The Belgium media is now, in effect, cut off from the mainstream online audience.

Google hit them where it hurts most. A blunt but effective weapon for publications that need to drive traffic to their sites to create value from their online presence.

In PR, we gain from online exposre of our stories and for Belgian Public Relations practitioners, this is now an issue and a new strategy is needed.

May be its is a case of creating online newspapers like this one.

Disintermediated PR

Erick Schonfeld has an excellent post about disruptive businesses.

It is my belief that there are a number of models that will disintermediate the practice of public relations. For example, I can easily see services that will sort out relevant from irrelevant media pitches presented to journalists and bloggers. In an era when it is getting quite simple to source relevant news by getting it to come to you when you need it and in a form that you want, it is relatively easy to ignore the pitches and phone calls.

This means that PR has to learn to use these techniques, understand RSS, tagging and interoperability that makes software do most of the work for you.

The key here is to realise that many businesses online have a capability to undermine established business models. I have mentioned some of these from Erick before:

1. Netvibes (The new personalized startpage)

2. EEStor (Gentlemen, stop your engines)

3. Coghead (DIY software)

4. NextMedium (Web marketplace for product placement)

5. Applied Location (Skymeter—fighting traffic with GPS)

6. Salesforce.com (The Oracle-killing, Web database)

7. BlueLithium (Google's new ad-versery)

8. Clearwire (Craig McCaw's WiMax play)

9. Zopa (Peer-to-peer banking)

10. Jajah (VoIP 2.0)

11. NanoLife Sciences (Cancer-blasting antiprotons)

Thailand coup d'état already on Wikipedia

In PR, making sure that events are covered across the media, and monitoring of the media to make sure that comment is true has to include Wikipedia.

2006 Thailand coup d'état already has a page just 2 days after the event.

There is a significant lesson here for PR practice.

First, of course, we have to monitor ALL the media.

The Arts use blogs to get wider apeal

The Stage reports:

Maybe this is pushing self-referential naval-gazing to the limit, but there’s an increasingly rich dialogue taking place away from the arts pages of the papers on the blogs, personal or media-led, instead. It’s a phemenon that Guardian blogger Maxie Szalwinska has usefully noted in her entry on the Guardian’s Culturevulture blog today.

She notes how theatre coverage in the US is undergoing what she calls “a mini-revolution”, as the blogosphere is “reaching corners the increasingly PR-driven and squeezed-for-space arts pages of the print media can’t (or won’t).” She goes on, “A bevvy of New York-based playwrights, critics, directors, academics and assorted drama fans are using blogs to have conversations about theatre culture, post reviews, challenge critical consensus, respond to breaking news and plug their productions. What binds them together, from the formidably prolific Superfluities to Playgoer, is genuine excitement about the medium.”

We may be lagging a little behind here in the UK, she says, but points out we’re catching on – and cites this blog as one that’s worth checking out (so it’s only fair to repay the compliment and say that The Guardian is leading the way amongst the national papers in getting their critics to participate, with Michael Billington posting regularly there).

The PR industry working in the Arts sector has an opportunity to be in the forefront in the UK.

Citzen Journalism on the reuters Payroll

Jay Rosen Announced that that Reuters is giving $100,000 to NewAssignment.Net.

That's the experiment I plan to launch next year with others who think there is something to the idea of open source journalism, where people collaborate peer-to-peer in the production of editorial goods.

The money from Reuters will underwrite the costs of hiring our first editor, who will start in early 2007. (I introduced the idea of New Assignment here. A summary, with blog and press reactions, is here.)

It's going to be a fun job. This is editing horizontally amid journalism gone pro-am. The idea is to draw "smart crowds" - a group of people configured to share intelligence - into collaboration at NewAssignment.Net and get stories done that way that aren't getting done now. By pooling their intelligence and dividing up the work, a network of volunteer users can find things out that the larger public needs to know. I think that's most likely to happen in collaboration with editors and reporters who are paid to meet deadines, and to set a consistent standard. Which is the "pro-am" part.

This may be an opportunity for the journalist lurking in many a PR person's persona.