User profiles on the social networking site MySpace now automatically display latest clips for users who have uploaded material, removing the need to embed videos with HTML code.
This is another example of how even the simplest of technology is being removed to let notnerd users participate in Social Media.
It is getting easier - for the PR person - and everyone else........ (is this how PR will be disintermediated in the future?
Monday, October 16, 2006
Spray and Pray e-tailing misses opportunities
Henry Hyder-Smith has some good comments about the use of email marketing (e-tailing). There is a lot of good work being done and there are a lot of companies that, for the sake of a few pennies are just making consumers irritable. His comments include:
Many eRetailers use a ‘spray and pray’ targeting technique to push out one size fits all marketing to their database. Despite the intelligence that can be gathered through email marketing including interest areas and behaviour on site/ within the email, the email promotion resembles more mini-brochures and less tailored communications using techniques such as dynamic content. None include any information about any local stores or capture this information on sign-up despite many asking for address.
Radio tagging - friend or foe
Unveiling the study, EU commissioner Viviane Reding said citizens needed re-assuring that radio tags would not lead to large-scale surveillance.
Ms Reding said she was ready to draft new laws to control how the radio frequency tags could be used.Potential abuse
The Information Society Commissioner made her comments at a conference called to mark the end of a six-month EU consultation exercise in which it sought opinions about the growing use of radio-frequency ID (RFID) tags.
These "smart barcodes" are increasingly used by businesses to monitor goods as they move along supply chains. Governments are also starting to think about putting them in many identity documents such as passports.
I would add that such technologies can be used by event organisers instead of tickets (and also to keep track of guests as they move round on a facility visit); They are great for monitoring exhibition visitors and are useful when following up the use of 'freebees' such as a trip to the Tower of London and the Savoy Grill - if you get my drift.
Blog software upgrade
Movable Type is currently being positioned as "the most advanced business blogging platform". This is marketing speak for 'upgrade' which is revrealed today.
It is having to compete with a lot of others.
From Wikipedia I have this list:
It is having to compete with a lot of others.
From Wikipedia I have this list:
User-hosted
Software packages installed by weblog authors to run on their own systems:
- b2evolution
- bBlog
- Blogsphere
- blosxom
- Community Server
- ExpressionEngine
- Dotclear
- Drupal
- Geeklog
- Greymatter
- LifeType
- Movable Type (also offered in developer-hosted form as TypePad)
- Nucleus CMS
- Radio UserLand
- Roller Weblogger
- Serendipity
- Subtext
- Textpattern
- Windows Live Writer
- WordPress (also offered in developer-hosted form as Wordpress.com)
[edit]
Developer-hosted
Software services operated by the developer, requiring no software installation for the weblog author:
The learning curve - BBC style
The BBC's heavily publicised "Tardisodes" - one-minute Doctor Who episodes designed specifically for mobile phones - were a flop, the corporation has revealed.
The Guardian has the grif.
Stella Creasey, the BBC's head of audience research, said they only attracted an average of 3,000 phone downloads per mobisode.
"That's not many," added Ms Creasey. "It seems we have a long way to go to understanding this new space."
The Guardian has the grif.
Perhaps Skype can provide an answer.One problem, said Iain Tweedale, the new media editor for BBC Wales, was that even though the BBC provided the mobisodes free, most users had to pay a charge to their phone operator of between £1.50 and £2 per Tardisode.
"The fact that there were 2.6 million downloads to PCs shows that there was an interest, so I think the problem with mobile was purely a commercial issue," said Mr Tweedale.
"The operators' tariff structures aren't flexible enough to allow for low-priced usage," he added.
Skype anywhere
Guardian get new branding for digital age
Guardian Newspapers is the latest national newspaper group to change its name to reflect the importance of new media activities says Press Gazette.
Guardian Newspapers – which comprises The Guardian, Observer and Guardian Unlimited – is to be re-named Guardian News and Media.
Chief executive of parent company Guardian Media Group Carolyn McCall said: “Over the last five years our output has expanded from print to include websites, digital TV, online communities and podcasts. These name changes reflect this ongoing transformation of our businesses.”
Mass MySpace spam attack
Reports are spreading of a mass spamming campaign organised by phishers which uses spoofed MySpace addresses to direct users to bogus web sites.
The ruse uses spoofed MySpace messages, that even contain the regular site boilerplate copy, claim to have a link to a song the recipient might like. Instead the link leads to a site selling very cheap music, but when the user tries to buy then the credit card details are harvested for later use.
XPRL Guides
Following on from Neville Hobson's post this morning about an XML based media release, there is the wider need in the industry for XML compliant content.
Social Media depends on XML to work which means that any tools created for the industry have to be XML compliant to have any long term value.
For many people who do not want to delve into the finer points of XPRL, I have made the XPRL standards Guide (PDF) and the Schema Semantics (PDF) available for download and of course the full schema is available here.
This will allow any programmer to develop XPRL compliant tools for the PR industry.
More information is available from Peter Wilson at Yellohawk.
Social Media depends on XML to work which means that any tools created for the industry have to be XML compliant to have any long term value.
For many people who do not want to delve into the finer points of XPRL, I have made the XPRL standards Guide (PDF) and the Schema Semantics (PDF) available for download and of course the full schema is available here.
This will allow any programmer to develop XPRL compliant tools for the PR industry.
More information is available from Peter Wilson at Yellohawk.
PR = Phone Relations
Richard Bailey is a great observer. He has put telephony in the frame as a communication channel ahead of the Internet. Right.
And he notes The Economist article which shows how the Internet is a platform for the Internet.
Good one Richard.
And he notes The Economist article which shows how the Internet is a platform for the Internet.
Good one Richard.
Martin Sorrell wriggles
The fall and fall of advertising is making Sir Martin wriggle.
He is now desperately distancing WPP from advertising. He is right to do so. Investors can see that it no longer delivers the goods. Here is what WPP is saying to The Business:
He is now desperately distancing WPP from advertising. He is right to do so. Investors can see that it no longer delivers the goods. Here is what WPP is saying to The Business:
WPP is not now an advertising agency. More than half its business comes from areas outside traditional advertising and media planning and buying – in specialties such as insight, information and consultancy, public relations and public affairs, branding and identity, healthcare and specialist communications. The most significant part of the last specialty is direct, interactive and internet.Here is why PR has a role, which may dig WPP out of its hole.
Reuters has got a Second Life
Reuters has joined the rush by big companies into web-based virtual worlds, setting up a news bureau in Linden Lab's hugely popular Second Life.
On Wednesday, the news agency plans to begin offering coverage of real-world events for Second Life members, and vice versa, at a new site.
Thank you e-consultancy for the tip off and a much longer comment here.
This means that if you have a story on Reuters, the audience may be in Second Life.
A schoolboys dream
Try taking this into an exam.
Steve Rubel says:
Steve Rubel says:
You gotta love geeks. Can't find what they're looking for, they code it.That's what Matt Swann did. He wrote a script that loads Wikipedia and all of its internal links onto on iPod.
3 million UK blogers?
According to Digi:Nation, says the Guardian, millions of internet users are now moving beyond using the web as a tool for shopping, information and entertainment and are creating their own content, downloading music and video and sharing photos online.
I guess this means that 10% of 'online adults' in the UK (3 million people - ish) are bloggers.The largest group identified by the researchers - dubbed Digi Joe Public - are regularly embarking on the kind of digital activities that just two years ago would have been considered the exclusive preserve of teenagers and early adopters.
Nearly four in 10 of that group have read a blog, with a quarter having started their own blog or website. Nearly three-quarters have downloaded music and almost a quarter have downloaded at least one movie.
That is a lot of people blogging.
Pay-for-play PR is bad - always
Gary Bivings has a comment about 'pay for play'.
If you have to pay for it, you are not doing it right. You will be found out, your client/organisation's reputation will suffer and the blogger in on the deal will be ignored by the 'real' people in the conversation.
... it seems that PR types and marketers are paying bloggers to write favoarble stories about client products. There's a story(not yet online) in the November issues of Smart Money called "Bloggers" by Anne Kadet highlighting this new (perhaps not, alas) and sordid trend. There's even a company called PayPerPost.com that as its name implies pays blogger for posts. Seems about as reputable as paying individuals and companies to fradulently click on search engine ads. (Yes, this is a real problem.)
If you have to pay for it, you are not doing it right. You will be found out, your client/organisation's reputation will suffer and the blogger in on the deal will be ignored by the 'real' people in the conversation.
Capozzi and Taffe say 'get with it'
the ICCO Global Conference in Delhi.
Lou Capozzi, chairman of the Publicis PR Group, and Paul Taffe, chairman of Hill& Knowlton, challenged PR firms to step up to the opportunities created by what Lou called “The New Conversation Age.” The panelists documented the changes and outlined the skills needed in this emerging new environment — skills possessed by PR practitioners more than any other discipline.
Read on to find out more... these guys are looking to the future of PR
Lou Capozzi, chairman of the Publicis PR Group, and Paul Taffe, chairman of Hill& Knowlton, challenged PR firms to step up to the opportunities created by what Lou called “The New Conversation Age.” The panelists documented the changes and outlined the skills needed in this emerging new environment — skills possessed by PR practitioners more than any other discipline.
Read on to find out more... these guys are looking to the future of PR
Engagement practices
Toni, as always sees the gold without panning for it.
Here he picks up one sentence that is important to PR practice from Jean Valin.
Here he picks up one sentence that is important to PR practice from Jean Valin.
As community consultation and stakeholder engagement practices continue to grow… I believe negotiating, conflict and dispute resolution skills are going to be as important… if not more important… than media relations and crisis communications skills. This is only one sentence from Jean Valin’s recent remarks at Puerto Rico’s recent Annual Conference (see recent post). Here attached you may find the full text Puerto Rico Speech Power of PR Sep 06.doc of his important speech. Jean Valin, Canadian, is past Chair of the Global Alliance.
The X factor for PR
The X in AJAX stands for XML, a way of wrapping up information to send it from computer to computer that is infinitely more flexible and powerful than old HTML ever was.
This is why the PR industry needs XPRL and to understand why it is so important, visit this BBC page.
This is why the PR industry needs XPRL and to understand why it is so important, visit this BBC page.
Oh lets look at the platforms
Platforms for delivering content through a range of channels for communication range from PC's to cell phones but the iPod and its cousins are really cool.
Just look at these...... drool and then get ready for Chrismas.
Just look at these...... drool and then get ready for Chrismas.
Reality and YouTube
I take this from Always On because it makes sense.
YouTube accounts for over 47 percent of visits to video websites. Add Google’s 11 percent share of hits to their own brand video service and we see the company is now in control of the lion’s share of global online video. This audience will only increase as broadband becomes the norm, as online video matures and as mobile devices develop the ability to act as seamless extensions of the Internet.
Time to both cosy up to Google/YouTube and to explore ways for creating more online video content.
Never were cameramen and editors more in demand for the PR industry than now.
The great thing is that there is a role for vox pop content and very polished content on the same channe - interesting to see which way the PR industry goes.
YouTube accounts for over 47 percent of visits to video websites. Add Google’s 11 percent share of hits to their own brand video service and we see the company is now in control of the lion’s share of global online video. This audience will only increase as broadband becomes the norm, as online video matures and as mobile devices develop the ability to act as seamless extensions of the Internet.
Time to both cosy up to Google/YouTube and to explore ways for creating more online video content.
Never were cameramen and editors more in demand for the PR industry than now.
The great thing is that there is a role for vox pop content and very polished content on the same channe - interesting to see which way the PR industry goes.
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