I recomend you follow the linksUK Press Gazette has a great article on how B2B media is adapting to the increasing dominance of the internet...
But it's not just the technology B2B publishers that are embracing online and multimedia content......
The article is a good reminder of why PR professionals need to be looking at how they change and adapt the way they work...
The general public can now register websites ending with .mobi (dotmobi) as the backers of the mobile net hope to overturn consumer apathy.
This means that you can now get your mobile domian names registered.
Only one in 10 mobile owners use their phones to surf the net due to concerns over cost, speed and poor content. Sites ending dotmobi are designed for phones and must meet agreed standards which will help.
Almost 13,000 companies have already registered dotmobi addresses as part of a pre-registration process open to trademark holders.
I must have read and heard a hundred times that viral marketing is an inexpensive way to get a message across. Nice idea. But it's not true.To be good in the use of social media takes time, and costs money.
A new study from ABI Research indicates that revenues from these new technologies will total $284 million in 2006, but that the equivalent figure for 2011 will be approximately $1.8 billion.
"Trials have shown that while many consumers don't mind paying a few dollars to download a movie, they are less willing to do so for TV programs," says principal analyst Michael Arden. "So cable companies and content providers want to generate revenue from their video-on-demand (VOD) and other services without having to charge a fee. In some trials, VOD viewer numbers increased dramatically when the service became advertising-based instead of fee-based."
What do these new technologies offer that older ones did not? Traditional ad insertion is a one-size-fits-all affair, while effective advertising is all about customizing the message for specific demographics. That is where the new generation of ad-splicers and VOD servers with ad-server capabilities shine.
The web has been buzzing this weekend with discussion of Sir Richard Branson’s decision to devote $3bn to alternative energy, announced at the Clinton Global Initiative. Chris Hughes explained in Saturday’s FT how this “amounts to a massive ‘asset allocation’ switch out of transport and into green energy” and he went on to ask if this was wise. But the bloggers (see below) have been providing their own answers.There are a number of important outtakes from the article.
When a reporter is immoral or dissolute or prostitutes their trade, they deserve such just one epithet. The Scotland on Sunday reporter fits the bill well.
He writes:
CORPORATE social responsibility (CSR) may at one stage have been little more than a public relations exercise for a good section of corporates. Today, however, it is central to how many leading-edge companies do business.
Is it, I ask, moral to be the user of information from Public Relations people and yet call what they do as 'no more than an exercise'?
In the article he even reports what Public Relations people say and called them to get more information. There is no restraints in his use of the work of people who only do this as 'no more than an exercise'. The service is in one moment worthless and at another accepted as part of his work. Indeed, it s the primary route by which information is derived for the article.
Is this the proper conduct of a journalist in seeking the truth. Is the checking of fact so evidently outside the influence of despised pariah Public Relations?
Even more improper is his passing reference to the identification of publics without proper investigation of the truths and sciences behind them.
He airily notes that
In broad terms, CSR reporting is generally seen as having four facets or "impact areas" across which companies measure themselves. These are the marketplace, the workplace, the environment and the community.
His view is partial, Fredmanseque and lacks any depth, an unrestrained blurting opinion, based on peripheral knowledge of a dissipated who has lost any sense of journalistic rectitude.
Just spin then!
Gideon Rachman of the FT reflects
"Over the summer a strange array of politicians started blogging. They included Hillary Clinton, who hopes to be the next president of America; Lionel Jospin, who hopes to be the next president of France; and Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, who is already president of Iran.
"Blogging as a medium has virtues: speed, spontaneity, interactivity and the vast array of information and expertise that millions of bloggers can bring together. But it also has its vices. The archetypal political blog favours instant response over reflection; commentary over original research; and stream-of-consciousness over structure.
"Was that last judgment fair? Does it really follow logically from the rest of the argument? I am not sure and I have no time to think about it further. I have to get back to my blog."
His references to some blogs are also helpful and include:
David Cameron: David Miliband: Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad: Lionel Jospin: ; Hillary Clinton: Segolene Royal: Ferenc Gyurcsany
THE Thomson holiday people have got it right. Guinness has got it wrong. L’Oréal started off badly but has made a good recovery. Most Scottish companies, on the other hand, are not even at the races.These are some of the conclusions delegates can expect at a conference about the business benefits of blogs, podcasts and other new media taking place in Edinburgh next week.....
Dutch bank ING Direct, for instance, has launched a viral video marketing campaign that promotes its new 'orange mortgage' to renters and potential first time home buyers.
The backbone of the campaign is a new Web site which features content, video clips and games. ING says the site also features a hidden secret mortgage offer that effectively reduces the closing costs on the mortgage to zero.
ING says the campaign is designed to reach first time home buyers through creative, interactive activities and links with other Internet destinations most familiar to the majority of the audience.
icWales has this report about a Welsh domain. A little change which could unite all Welsh people and those who belong to the world-wide Welsh community. That thing is .cym
Yes, the campaign for a Top Level Domain (TLD) for the Welsh language and linguistic community is up and running and is gaining strength as Welsh and Welshness looks for status on the world wide web.
I am thinking of running one for Wiltshire. dot wilt would be useful. imagine a domain called www.thou.wilt or www.myroses.wilt.Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Vertical Search":
Hi, David We would like you to check our vertical search sites: - Trovit Jobs - Trovit cars, second hand cars - Trovit Homes, real estate We hope you like them!
The site, which officially launched last month, is targeting the 400,000 freshers entering university and, ultimately, the 1.2 million full-time students in the UK.
"It is clear British is best when it comes to social networking, with freshers preferring a site dedicated to UK students to something adapted from a generic US model," said Mr Hoberman, a strategic adviser and non-executive director at the company.
"The study of the top 30 retail websites found that not one homepage achieves single-A compliance, which is the minimum requirement by law for making websites more accessible for disabled people in accordance with the globally recognised Web Content Accessibility Guidelines3 version 1.0."
