- Be Very Scared
- An Island Unto Itself?
- Podcasts -- iPod optional
- The New Media Consumer
- The Best Way To Pitch A Blog…
- View Archive >
- About this blog
- Branding
- Corporate
- Crisis
- Healthcare
- Interactive
- Media
- PR
- Research
- Search Marketing
- Social Media
The Lead
| February 2006
|
« January 2006 | Main | March 2006 » Be Very ScaredPosted by Rich Sharp on February 28, 2006 at 4:40 PMIf I were traditional media, I’d be scared of My Space, too. Social networks are now ingrained in the behaviors of teens and young adults, and the younger Gen Y-ers and Millennials are right behind them. With News Corporation’s purchase of My Space, it won’t be long until it becomes a hub for more non-My Space content and a platform for significant advertising. And when those kids are in their 20s and their sitting down the hall from us, we’re going to have to be one step ahead of them. Time to think like a teen again – though not a teen circa 1978… An Island Unto Itself?Posted by Matt Kucharski on February 28, 2006 at 3:58 PMMeeting this week with our Worldcom Public Relations Group partners Kaizo and HBI this week in the UK and Germany, respectively. Apparently, the UK prefers that all materials be written in "English English" (think Colour vs. Color, Centralise vs. Centralize) while the rest of Europe would prefer that trans-national materials be written in "American English." Probably payback for the UK refusing to switch from Pounds to Euros... Podcasts -- iPod optionalPosted by Bob Brin on February 24, 2006 at 3:33 PMAs we developed our Quick Questions podcast series we found that a lot of people assume podcasts are intended just for iPods and other handhelds. Actually, just about anyone with a computer can tune in to your podcasts. Typically they're audio or video files which can be played by RealPlayer or Windows Media Player, etc. So, if you have something to say, sing, or show, don't delay just because your audience isn't toting iPods. Think of podcasts as on-demand (the "od" part of pod) audio or video. "P" stands for personal and can mean personal computer, as well as personal audio player. On a simple level, anyone can just click and play on their computer. However, it gets more exciting when you tap the potential of the feed. A podcast uses RSS feed technology (like a news feed), the same technology used for blogs, but with an added "enclosure" of a video, audio or other type of file. This allows you to create your very own channel for others to subscribe to a steady dose of your casts via their podcast reader, including iTunes or Juice. There's no need to be as slick or "produced" as radio/TV broadcasts. Because that is soooo last century. It's better to be timely and fun/informative. So, in a peapod, podcasts are pretty simple technology. The hard part, of course, is strategy and content. There's a lot of drivel out there. Your job is to make your content magnetic . . . the subject of another post. The New Media ConsumerPosted by Rich Sharp on February 22, 2006 at 8:45 AMI attended a presentation Monday night on the relevance of the news media sponsored by the Minnesota chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. The consensus among the panel was that news media remain relevant, but that relevance is changing. The “new” media consumer triangulates, the panel said. Today’s media consumers read the same story from multiple sources and frame opinions and conclusions based on that information. Consumers of a single channel can’t possibly have a well-rounded perspective, they argued. And they’re right. This puts a tremendous burden on traditional media. Newspapers are rushing to improve their online presence, but most newspaper web sites are regurgitations of their pulp product. Television stations repurpose the same stuff. Radio, well, there’s one station in town getting it right. Now, enter Google, Yahoo!, MSN and other portals. They introduce another dimension. The portals are becoming a single source of information as aggregators of news reported by multiple media outlets. And Yahoo! is in the process of beefing up its news offerings. News media won’t disappear. Panelist Dave Kansas, editor of The Wall Street Journal’s Money and Investing section, said that without traditional media, the citizenry wouldn’t be able to produce news. I agree. Though newsroom staffs are shrinking, they still are large at the national level and they have the education, expertise, knowledge and contacts necessary to produce news. What is changing is the relationship between the reader and the reporter. Media gatekeepers decide which news we get, when we get it and in which format we get it. In the near future, readers will make those decisions, while the reporters will focus on getting the story right and delivering it via the channels we select. I pondered all this while reading the news on my phone, like I do every day. But I still can’t get my daily newspaper on my phone. (I think I’ve complained about this before, but it doesn’t hurt to do it again…get with it!)
The Best Way To Pitch A Blog…Posted by Rich Sharp on February 13, 2006 at 2:50 PM…is to not pitch it at all. A good example is a post from Jonathan Freed, a correspondent for CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360”, about a recent assignment to cover Target’s in-house crime lab. We don’t know if Target (or its agency) pitched the story to “360” in the hopes that it would result in a story and a post on the "360" blog. But kudos to the team if that was the intent. It underscores the importance of understanding that a good story can have more lives than just a quick spot on a news program. Not so with a bland story, but that’s another post for another day. It also underscores the importance of understanding the media. Cooper’s blog is popular and garners plenty of viewer/reader interaction (31 comments for the Target post so far). Knowing that the correspondent is a “360” blog participant gave the Target PR folks a shot at an opportunity to spread the word online that most others would have missed. Now if Target can capture the attention of the “CSI” franchise for some on-screen tag-teaming/brand placement… Industry Analysts -- The Paradox ContinuesPosted by Matt Kucharski on February 9, 2006 at 1:13 PMIf you've been having trouble getting your arms around the influence and impartiality of industry analysts, particularly those in the technology sector, you'll want to check out this article in InformationWeek. It doesn't give any answers, but it does a pretty good job of articulating the questions we've all been asking about what's been affectionately called in our field "the world's second-oldest profession." There's a maxim in our field that says the more control you have over the medium and the message, the less credibility the communication is likely to have. Think about the least influential trade publication in your industry. It's likely they're running your submissions verbatim. Conversely, the less control you have over the medium, the higher the credibility (think Wall Street Journal). Regardless of what you think of the industry analyst gig, the Control/Credibility relationship holds true. Those who bow to outside influences will eventually lose their reputations, and those who maintain a "separation of church and state" will in the long run win out. My two cents, anyway... Blog measurement baloneyPosted by Rich Sharp on February 7, 2006 at 3:57 PMSteve Rubel at MicroPersuasion today tackled the mess that is blog measurement. Statistics vary widely on the number of blogs, blog readership and the ill-conceived unique visit. We need to understand the problem, or problems as they exist. Rubel says current measurements of traffic data or unique are not good indicators of blog use. True. But we also must go beyond the actual measurements. If I walked into a client’s office and said “Bill, you had 90,000 unique visits to your blog last month,” where’s the value in that? One could argue that if a target had been set (say 75,000), then 15,000 more unique visits beat the target. Success, right? Not quite. What was said in those blogs? To whom was it said? What was the substance of comments, if any were submitted? How is this information relevant to the client’s business? This is the inherent flaw in blog measurement products. To-date, they’re nothing more than window dressing and justification for keeping the meter running or getting a foot in the door. Without contextual interpretation and analysis built into the measurement, there’s no value. The World May Not Be Ending…Posted by Rich Sharp on February 2, 2006 at 1:52 PM…But it sure is getting close. Witness the fact that you now can put ads on eggs, and that you can send press releases via RSS as advertisements. In the words of Homer Simpson, “Mmm…sacrelicious.” The Public RecordPosted by Rich Sharp on February 2, 2006 at 1:45 PMI think Facebook, My Space and other social networks are wonderful. Communicators need to pay attention to these social networks, because as our youth grow into adults, I am convinced that this is where they will retrieve their news and will continue to share information with friends. We need to be there. I do have one concern about social networks, and that is that many fine people who either are entering our industry or have been in it for a few years are creating a digital profile of themselves that their employers or prospective employers will see – and they won’t be happy. Here’s a Facebook excerpt from a recent communications graduate’s profile: Interests: …dancing around in my underwear and singing at the top of my lungs in an attempt to make [name deleted] laugh her ass off, quesadillas, facebook fantasies, drunken debauchery on the Apple River (I seriously doubt that topless keg stands and making out with [name deleted] was involved in this scenario)…. I’m not passing judgment on this person – casting the first stone would be hypocritical. Many fine party animals have gone on to greatness in this industry. But prior to social networking, employers have never had such a clear window into a prospect’s life. Now, people are unwittingly leaving a digital and permanent trail of their lives online. BTW, you'll find that I have a profile on Facebook, but if you're going there looking for tales or photos of my college years, forget it. They don't exist (as far as you know). |
