The BBC is reporting a debate in the UK Parliament. Members of the House of Lords were told trying to impose new rules on audio-visual internet providers - like the YouTube site - could stifle new broadcasters.
Internet broadcasters should not be subject to the same rules which govern television, peers have been told.
The cost of complying with new rules could deter new would-be Internet entrepreneurs, the committee heard.
And it would prove difficult to get TV regulation to fit online services, as well as impose any rules on such fast-changing technology.
Each point is valid and the debate should be enjoined by the PR profession as well.
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Demonstrating Social Media Value
Andrew Lark has a comment about LinkedIn.
He shows how valuable it is for job hunting (in his case recruiting).
It is this kind of exposure - public relations - that demonstrates the value of social media.
His comment begins:
I was extremely skeptical of LinkedIn but unlike Stowe and Jeff have found it to be pretty valuable. First for recruitment - the quality of the candidates I have seen through advertising on LinkedIn are fantastic - and I like the fact that some of them come recommended by people I trust. Second, it has proven to be immensely valuable in connecting with old colleagues and keeping my current network humming along
He shows how valuable it is for job hunting (in his case recruiting).
It is this kind of exposure - public relations - that demonstrates the value of social media.
His comment begins:
I was extremely skeptical of LinkedIn but unlike Stowe and Jeff have found it to be pretty valuable. First for recruitment - the quality of the candidates I have seen through advertising on LinkedIn are fantastic - and I like the fact that some of them come recommended by people I trust. Second, it has proven to be immensely valuable in connecting with old colleagues and keeping my current network humming along
Monday, October 16, 2006
Optimising your content for search engines
Evert press release and all blogs, web pages and emails need to be optimised for search engines - if you want them to be found by journalists, bloggers or in email searches on the Intranet.
Its called Search Engine Optimisation. It is acore discipline for PR people. It is best done by a professional and here is are 20 reasons why you could do it yourself or could use Anthony Mayfield.
Its called Search Engine Optimisation. It is acore discipline for PR people. It is best done by a professional and here is are 20 reasons why you could do it yourself or could use Anthony Mayfield.
Sky ousts Beeb - Now go for digital posters for PR campaigning
Mark Sweney at MediaGuardian.co.uk tells us:
In fact, for direct communication, this is a really cool tool for PR. In addition, when pitching a story to Sky, are you asking if it will be available through this added communication channel.
Sky News is to be broadcast in major Network Rail stations across the UK, replacing BBC News 24.There is a case for much wider use of big screens offering interesting content. The technology is changing fast and soon we will gave digital posters like this one all over the place.Transvision, the national digital outdoor screen network owned by Titan Outdoor, chose Sky News after a pitch against BBC News last week.
The outdoor network, which is seen by around three million people each week, will provide five strands of Sky News including main headlines, financial, entertainment and sports news and the weather.
In fact, for direct communication, this is a really cool tool for PR. In addition, when pitching a story to Sky, are you asking if it will be available through this added communication channel.
Virtual Worlds can't avoid the taxman
With virtual economies booming at double digit growth per month the world's tax collectors are on the lookout for a new source of revenue says IT Pro.
Users of online worlds such as Second Life and World of Warcraft transact millions of dollars worth of virtual goods and services every day, and these virtual economies are beginning to draw the attention of real-world authorities.
"Right now we're at the preliminary stages of looking at the issue and what kind of public policy questions virtual economies raise -- taxes, barter exchanges, property and wealth," said Dan Miller, senior economist for the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress.
LinkedIn -
Online network LinkedIn is to offer a new directory search, giving its members a new method of choosing business service providers based on recommendations, reports e-consultancy.
With a massive student user base, this could help in development of markets to student networks and a revenue stream for this MySpace/Bebo competitor.
In the new directory, LinkedIn users will be able to search for service providers among those recommended by friends, or else broaden the search to include friends of friends.
The site will also offer a global search option, which will search for service provides across the whole LinkedIn network.
MySpace makes vid easy
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?
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?
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.
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