Live Blogging Is Dead (How Else Am I Supposed to Title This?)

Live Tweeting has replaced Live Blogging, if it wasn't already obvious. I can't remember if it was the latest Jobs MacWorld Keynote where it became apparent (because Twitter was much faster than MacRumors) or if was during one of the 25+ debates this past election season ... all I do know is that Twitter has replaced blogs for instant information. It has ceased to be a microblogging platform. Twitter has become a macro-messaging dashboard.

Whether it is finding out the new relationship between SalesForce and FaceBook, the trade of Allen Iverson, or the untimely death of Tim Russert, information is being learned on Twitter more than any other medium. For it to make it to Twitter, it very often has to be broken by a (hopefully reputable) source first ... but once that link exists, the chances of it going viral (assuming it deserves to go viral) is greater. Is Twitter even faster than Digg now? That answer is definitely YES.

While I wasn't the biggest advocate of Twitter for a while, this particular use of the platform is transformative.

As many of you know, I do a lot of presentations for agencies, corporations and industry events. Recently I have been playing a word association game with Twitter while presenting. I ask the audience, "What's the first word that comes to mind when I say 'Twitter.'"

I started doing this because I had a very surprising experience at an agency. There is a small firm in downtown NYC that pretty much exploded in laughter when I pulled up the screenshot of twitter. So we went around the room and asked everyone what they thought? The words that were thrown out were: ridiculous, crazy, boring, waste of time, bird, etc. I don't remember anyone in those events saying journalist, influencers, instant messaging, conversation, etc.

I'd love to be able to do it now, but due to time I'll have to save my, "Why Twitter is Important" post for later and just point you towards HubSpot's solid tome.

UPDATE: The untimely and unfortunate death of Barack Obama's grandmother was spread on Twitter only seconds after it was broken on MSNBC and beat Reuters, CNN, Marketwatch, etc. to the news. It also beat Digg by a mile. I'm very saddened by the news and hope it doesn't come across as callous.

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All This Fuss Over A Can?

Can you believe there are hundreds of people arguing (including Seth Godin) about whether or not Pepsi should have redesigned their can? Even worse, people are lambasting the company for reaching out to influential bloggers ... GASP!

If you aren't familiar with the idea, they sent influential bloggers all of their cans dating back to the stone age. How they actually delivered the cans is brilliant. Read Peter Shankman's post on it ... (Yes, they did ask for addresses. Otherwise, that would be creepy.)

So why, when you go to Chris Brogan's post, is there outrage in the comments over how much this endeavor must have cost?

Are you serious? This endeavor, in total, probably cost less than one ad buy on television talking about the new logo. Moreover, they didn't even have to talk about it ... this strategy enabled us, or You, to talk about it. This is the way brands should communicate. The problem is, when you do talk about it ... you completely miss the point.

Darryl Parker compiled a list of people who received the 'gift basket.'

One of things that I think PR people and agencies should really think about moving forward wit h a program like this is: What kind of pickup did it get?

Sure, this got posted in many of the most influential blogs online. But it seems mostly only in the PR, Marketing and Communications field. This is the one issue I have with outreach programs like this, the Nikon D80 Campaign, Virtual Thirst, and, less so, the Acer Ferrari program. All of these programs got a lot of views and had a lot of conversation around it online. However, with the exception of the latter, they were in sites surrounding the PR, Ad, and Marketing communities. The programs that do the best, or will do best in the future, are the ones that reach out to the community at large ... the 'regular folks' that aren't in the biz.

Regardless, I love the new design and am very proud of Bonin and his team over at Pepsi for what is a new approach to blogger outreach ... one that ethically guaranteed pickup, unlike so many of the precedents.

If you like, go to FriendFeed and participate in the conversation at the Pepsi Cooler.

(Photo Source)

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A New Friend

For a Friday night ...

Friendly Company

For a Friday night

A Techmeme Killer?

Google Launched a Topix-like Techmeme killer ... will it replace Techmeme?

No... probably not, but it does give everyone one more reason to migrate to Google's Blogsearch over technorati (don't get me started).

What do you think?

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Viral Crashing ... Are We Going To Hear About A Movie Launch Soon?

Gotta say I've always been a very big fan of Sacha Baron Cohen... wasn't that into his latest film, but many of his skits were so brilliantly satirical that they went over most of his audience's head (and how a propos now during an election that is hinging on race and intolerance)... but his most recent splash came today at a fashion show for Prada ... Hilarious, Sacha. Bravo! Bravo!

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We're a Cartoon .... Again?!?!

Sure, I got a kick out of the cartoons with me and Peter Shankman regarding the HARO vs. ProfNet kerfuffle ... this latest one's funny but a bit off. Even still ...







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The Proof Is In The Pudding

Today PR Newswire distributed a release which verifies PR Newswire’s leadership position in the commercial newswire industry. The study was conducted by the market research and intelligence firm Diagnostics Plus. The results were very stark and somewhat surprising to many of the clients I have spoken to about this.

While I urge you to read the release, the additional materials for online and print, as well as the slideshare presentation, please also view the videos.

"Our content has been referred to in more blog posts, Diggs and Delicious Links than any other commercial wire service," said Dave Armon, President of PR Newswire. "PR Newswire has the highest Google page rank in our industry, and has been referenced as a source on Wikipedia more than any other wire service as well. We believe this proves PR Newswire is the most trusted and credible source for news from the corporate and public policy sectors."





This is a very encouraging day for a lot of us as the things we’ve been told and have been telling clients for a year have been statistically and scientifically verified.

There is a great discussion about this study happening right now on twitter and on PR-Squared.

Where I'm At

Bigger Fish To Fry ...

Google News has found an even bigger fish to fry than United Airlines ... Microsoft.

Do you think it is coincidence that a story about IE8 has Google Chrome's logo next to it?

The issue with Google's bots severely hurting the stock price of United Airlines is actually a much bigger story for our industry than many people want to admit ... or maybe it's just that this isn't the kind of story that can get you on to TechMeme.

From my perspective, one of Google News' biggest issues has always been the lead source they put forward to the public on major breaking news. As an employee of PR Newswire I tend to see a lot of news before anyone else ... web indexers included. But how all press releases aren't the lead on Google News when a release is issued is beyond me. The first story released should always be the first one indexed on this particular site. While I understand the need and value of the reaction to the news, credible and authentic sources will become even more important in this changing media landscape.

Yes, a press release isn't exactly a story, but it is an official and authorized company statement. Additionally, many times Google News indexes a release from the wire but picked up (not covered) verbatim by a downstream partner (like Marketwatch, Reuters, AP, DJ, etc.).

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I'm Going To Be A Daddy Blogger

My wife is not nearly the kind of geek I am ... though she was blogging over 4 years ago. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised by the way she told me she was pregnant...

(this pic was sent via a text message while I was out of town)

This major development has obviously thrown us into a spiral of doctor's visits, sonograms, ultrasounds and the dreaded registries. I cannot believe all of the stuff that is required of parents (this will be our first, and no, we are not finding out the gender of the baby).

With all of the strollers, prams, travel systems, and car seats we have to look into, I'm astonished and intimidated. On the other hand, professionally, I can totally understand the importance and influence of 'Mommy Bloggers.' HELP!!!

For the men and women who speak online about certain products, whether it is a review on Amazon or a video on YouTube (which KiddieCare is terrific at (though they don't ship to the U.S.)). Bloggers are also incredibly influential for many reasons ... most importantly are the comment and conversation aspect as well as the google juice effect. I am more inclined to believe and place import in a conversation on a blog than reviews on a particular retailers website (then again, if there are 10 reviews and all are 5 out of 5, that says something).

For the registry, I considered building a website that would serve as a registry so we could add items from numerous sites. We also found out about Amazon's WishList Bookmarklet around the same time but because it wouldn't advise the owner of the list nor the other friends looking to buy things of the purchases it became impractical... Anyhow ... It looks like the Stokke Xplory and Orbit Infant System are out of the question. Over $1,000 on a stroller! We are looking at a few Silver Cross prams from an English retailer (depending on the shipping costs)...

Anyhow. My wife and I are very excited and we wanted all of our friends out in the webosphere to know ... we're expecting December 9th.

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Ted Kennedy's Speech at the 2008 DNC Was Historic and Perfect

It was a very emotional evening for fans of history and the Kennedy's (at least, the sons of Joe). Though he wasn't as vigorous as he was in some of the video they showed during the tribute, the content and words were exacting.

I urge you to read the transcript.



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Will Location Based Programs Farewell?

Though I only get slightly creeped out by the prompt on my iPhone asking me if I'd like to share my location, it is not as invasive as dodgeball or BrightKite. Dodgeball, though purchased by Google, never took off despite the initial shiny factor. BrightKite isn't taking off because the service doesn't make much sense. What's the purpose of these programs? Stalker enablers? I completely understand that they're "opt-in," I just don't want to get that involved ... it also speaks to my feelings about Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, etc. (ask me over a drink, I dare you).

Anyhow, enter Garmin ... Garmin partnered with uLocate "to add friend-finding capabilities to select current and future Garmin GPS devices."

The Alley Insider thinks that location-based services might be a $3.3 Billion market in 5 years. I'm no expert in the futures market of LBS, I just think that this fervor is misdirected.

Location-based Advertising is going to be a prevalent disruption, this is for sure.

Let's use Apple's iPhone as an example (shocker). Imagine if the (newly, much improved) Google Maps application pulls local and relevant advertising just as quick as it can find an address. Imagine if that advertising included Yelp reviews. Imagine of positive reviews that resulted in OpenTable reservations resulted in revenue for that Yelp reviewer? As a foodie, I think this could be the biggest opportunity. Unfortunately, it seems restaurants (conglomerates or local mom and pops) have very low PR budgets.

Location based services are not going to be that big unless they include advertising in the forecast. I don't think they did and that's why I think that report was way off... Agree?

Speaking of low PR budgets, and due out very soon on this shelf, "Why Advertising and Marketing Need to Share."

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Immunity or Community?

To Stumble Or To Digg … Is It Even A Question?

One of the things that puts me in a tricky position as a consultant for PR Newswire is counseling (is that ironic or what?). As an Editor (I was an Editor and Senior Editor from 2002 - 2005), we were not able to counsel clients on what was or was not material to a news announcement. This had to be determined by the client and their legal team. More recently, as the Manager of Emerging Media and a Senior Account Supervisor, I am responsible for counseling clients on rules in Social Media. I'm not exactly sure yet, but this may be a lot trickier.

Much of my presentations focus on social media, social bookmarking and social networking (YES, there is a VERY big distinction between the three (or four)). I contend that the former consists of sites like Wikipedia, Citizendium, Digg, SocialMedian, Newsvine, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Marketwatch and even Reuters Buzz and TD Ameritrade. Social Bookmarking consists of sites like Delicious, Magnolia and Furl. Social Networking consists of sites like Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, Bebo and newcomers like Corkd, Ning, and SocialGo. Maybe even there's room for a distinction between social media sites and social aggregators like FriendFeed, SocialThing, and others.

There is a very big difference between these four. Social Media relies on the wisdom of crowds and policing of its constituents. The users and community determine the story, definition, accuracy, popularity and trend of the data and/or information. Social Bookmarking sites allows users to store, organize, search, and manage information with other users. Social Networking consists of sites that allow its users to congregate, conversate and organize friends, events and information. Social Aggregators, which is still somewhat of a new term, allow users to stream their online lives and peer into the lives of others.

As far as PR, Marketing and Advertising is concerned, using many of these sites is off-limits. I don't necessarily mean abusing . Digg, StumbleUpon, Reuters Buzz, Yahoo Message Boards, Wikipedia, and many other of these kinds of sites should NOT be used to promote your product, company or blog post. As I say in all of my presentations, doing this is the same thing as patting yourself on the back on video. I don't even think that proactively requesting Diggs is appropriate. Most of these functions are supposed to be reactions by the community at large. The results are supposed to be organic... not contrived. While everyone agrees that the A-List consists of, and requires, shameless self-promotion, it should be done with the utmost integrity.

For the corporate bloggers and shareholders out there ... be aware that you are not an A-List blogger. They can get away with this ... you can't. The problem is their immunity, not their community.

(Photo Credit)

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I'm a Bit of a Geek ...

It's true and it doesn't only hold true for media, the web and the New York Rangers. I also LOVE gadgets. I have always been into mobile phones, cameras, console wars, etc.

I've recently capitulated and determined that I finally NEED to purchase a camcorder (more on that some other time). After doing extensive research on sites from CNET and Amazon to blog reviews and B&H, I decided on the aforelinked DCR-SR85. I'm hoping it arrives when I return from Vegas on Wednesday morning ...

I've also decided, after recent difficulties finding what seemed to be simple locations, I'm in desperate (sic) need of a GPS device. Though the iPhone's turn-by-turn directions are very impressive and useful, it is not a viable or safe solution. I cannot decide between Garmin and TomTom and am confused as to how prices on older devices haven't dropped enough ... the low range still is in the $150 - $200 area and has been for a VERY long time. Anyhow. I have yet to find out which one I will get because I've only used Garmin's in rental cars and have never tried a TomTom. Have you?

There is a lot of debate about HD and iLife and even the length of time it would take for any computer to compress, edit, process, etc. HD video. I'm always the first one to get the best of breed or top model, but in this case I just didn't see how HD for a consumer who wants to edit video is feasible ... Have you heard or experienced otherwise?

Anyhow ... it's bedtime.

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Is Google Reader The New FriendFeed?

I know I know ... everything's the new next thing ... but this feature looks like it could steal a lot of FriendFeed's thunder. What do you think?





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Perfect Example of Corporate Viral Video

Hat tip to Dave Winer for posting this on FriendFeed.

First, this is an absolutely hilarious video ... oops, commercial.

If a company asks you to do a viral video for them, show them this and ask them if they're ready:



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Search Is A Function of Public Relations

There has been a great debate on Jason Falls' blog regarding the role of Public Relations in Social Media. Todd Defren followed up on it with some great points as well ... Without going into a semantic debate on the term Social Media or the intricacies of both of their premises, I wanted to bring up a different point I've been discussing at presentations and industry events. This following is another tenet of the Eyeball Economy.

Search Advertising is a Function of Public Relations

1. For years we have used the terms advertising and search without distinction or difference. By definition, advertising is a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade potential customers to purchase or to consume more of a particular brand of product or service. Advertising is exclusively a push endeavor which is "designed to generate increased consumption of those products and services through the creation and reinforcement of 'brand image' and 'brand loyalty.'"


2. Web Search is a activity a user performs in order to find information he is familiar or unfamiliar with. "Web search queries are distinctive in that they are unstructured and often ambiguous."


3. The role of PR is to get information from the organization to the person looking for it. "Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing the flow of information between an organization and its publics."


4. Marketing is an ongoing process of planning and executing the marketing mix (Product, Price, Place, Promotion (often referred to as the 4 Ps)) for products, services or ideas to create exchange between individuals and organizations.

Public Relations is there to provide people with information when they are looking for it, whether they know it or not. Advertising and Marketing is there to push brands, images, and slogans, whether they like it or not.

For over one year we have been combining our clients major news announcements to comprehensive AdWords campaigns. Shannon Whitley, who coined the term NewsAds, has been working on this integration for just as long. However, there hasn't been enough traction for our clients on this front.

Shannon Whitley:

"In terms of explaining what NewsAds are, I like to use the paper boy analogy. The paper boy would shout the news headlines of the day and that would draw the attention of customers who wanted to learn more. Shouting your headlines through Google AdWords (especially since the ads are targeted) is a great way to draw attention to your news and provide people the ability to dig deeper through a single click of the mouse.

"I see online ads as just another method of distribution. In those terms, I don't see why PR can't use them as part of an overall campaign. NewsAds are not a complete solution, but they can be used to support a news release by quickly drawing in thousands of eyeballs. Because the ads are targeted, the likelihood that the reader will be interested in the topic of the release is much greater."

As most of us know, Shannon is an incredibly valuable thought and action leader in the social media community. We all have to do a better job communicating how important leveraging search is. Beyond paid search, we need to be leveraging all other parts of search ... from paid to organic to video. Our clients need to make sure every click is covered. Search is, unfortunately, sometimes two steps beyond what we're telling our clients about. Regarding Multimedia News Releases ... why the heck aren't they the links on the company's mediaroom? Why are our clients and competitors clients linking to the text only version when they spent significant cash on an enhanced version?

For clients who have lost the VNR and other broadcast vehicles from their quiver, NewsAds is a replacement that will add the numbers you lost while leveraging the web and enhancing SEO. Additionally, for projects and campaigns that demand success, NewsAds are the best way to ensure visibility, pickup, impressions, and views.

(While I'm obviously precluded from sharing our client's data, the first project we worked on last May resulted in over 2 million impressions and over 200 click throughs ... all aside from the organic results, which were significant due to the compelling nature of the announcement.)

For feedback on Shannon's product launch:
Todd reviewed NewsAds last June , as did Tom Foremski.

For more information on integrating search into PR campaigns, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter or Friendfeed.

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Google To Buy Digg for $200 Million?

TechCrunch is reporting that Google is buying Digg for $200 Million. I think that it could be a steal due to the amount of traffic Digg gets, the name recognition, and the brilliant media aspect of the site ...

Chris Abraham thinks $200 million is insane, but I think it could turn out to be a steal ... especially if the site is improved. If it goes mainstream and replaces a site like, oh, TechMeme, forget about it ...

We'll see how this all turns out ...


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UPDATE: The Insane quote is actually attributable to Jonathan Trenn. Apologies, Jonathan.

The New Mobile Advertising Model; Exactly

While everyone is talking about the lines, activation issues, lack of new features, GPS, the genius of certain applications, the impact of certain applications (rightfully so), etc., a much bigger story is taking shape. Millions of people have purchased the new iPhone 3G. In fact, over the weekend alone 1 million were sold. This would leave me to believe (especially considering that our local AT&T shop is out for 7 - 21 days) that many millions more have been sold. While there is no doubt they (Nasdaq: AAPL) will exceed sales expectations and engender millions of new loyal Mac users, they are also doing a huge favor for their partners... both advertising and application. Apple has just created one of the largest advertisement delivery networks ever.

Each user of the new device, as well as the old device, will be consuming content in the most modern way ... via RSS feeds and efficient open-sourced applications. I am not quite sure why it has not gotten much coverage yet, but Apple is monetizing their phone better than many websites are. This should be viewed as a very big sea change in advertising (are you watching, Google?). Monetizing Web sites is a somewhat recent invention ... not only is Apple selling applications to their users, but they are selling advertising space to their partners ... that is, if they are getting this revenue!?!

Having downloaded the 2.0 firmware July 10th, I've accessed the NYTimes application several times and only seen this Westin ad. I'm sure I'm not alone ... How many people have seen this add? One million? How many iPhone 1.0 and 2.0 users are there? How many times has this application been downloaded? Luckily, I'm sure Apple will be able to tell, in this case, Westin, exactly how many people have seen their advertisement.

To many this doesn't sound very major. It is. The one thing that advertising and marketing firms have been terrible at, as long as they've existed, is precision. PR has always had the expectation of precision: exactly how many papers covered the story; exactly how many people viewed the press release; exactly.

I doubt Apple is going to be providing "Opportunities to View" as the measure to their clients. They will tell Westin exactly how many people saw their ad ... they could probably tell them, to a certain degree, who. Regarding precise demographics, which I'm sure AT&T and Apple have, they may be able to tell everything ... one via contracts and social security numbers, the other via iTunes and other web habits.

We will see if Apple will squander this opportunity by failing the measurement test or by failing our privacy expectations ... I doubt it.

What advertisements have you seen? Which applications are being advertised on/in?


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The Eyeball Economy

Thomas Hawk wrote a great piece on the future of stock photography and how FlickR, Getty Images, Yahoo and iStockphoto will fare.

He raised an incredibly interesting point today on FriendFeed about the low price photographers are being paid via iStockphoto.

This brings up, in my mind, a much larger issue. Moving forward, will the price and cost of content be inverse to the price of eyeballs?

In this age of time-shifting, place-shifting, RSS, microblogs and their aggregators, marketers are having a very difficult time reaching consumers directly. They have been placing dollar amounts for years on Television commercials, billboards, radio ads, print ads, even press releases. With the audiences of MSM dwindling (in TV's case, the number of people that have to watch commercials is decreasing), the value of audiences in these other places should increase dramatically. This is one of the reasons why we will see a tremendous increase in the cost and value of banner ads ... yes, banner ads again.

In the same vein, since everyone is a potential content producer, how much is it worth anymore? With web shows like RocketBoom, Wall-Strip and The Burbs (not counting all of the YouTube/Revver/MetaCafe 'Celebrities'), anyone can be a content creator. All you need is a cell phone, camcorder, or webcam. Since some of this content is more interesting and compelling, why pay for cable anymore (especially when Fox kills shows like Arrested Development in favor of Prison Break and assorted karaoke shows).

I think this is the beginning of the opposite of an attention crash. What would we call this?

With aggregators like iGoogle, Netvibes and, yes, FriendFeed, I'm able to keep track of and pay attention to far more information than ever. While some of what I retain is nominal (I remember a ton of headlines), I don't read a lot of content in its entirety. I am retaining all of this information where I used to store things like ... oh, phone numbers! While I have four personal phone numbers myself (I don't even know my home phone number), I don't know how many others I recall. I remember my phone numbers from the houses I grew up in. Even some of my best friends numbers from those days ... but certainly new numbers don't get stored in my brain... just headlines, failed social networks, and poor showings by the New York Rangers.

Back to topic: How much is content going to be worth? When are ad values going to increase dramatically? Your thoughts?

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Retail Slowdown

This store is absolutley packed.

New Communications In A Distracted World

Many of the presentations I have given over the last three years have revolved around educating clients on RSS and why it's important; why it made blogs as influential as they currently are; how it has crippled the newspaper and how the Eyeball Economy has destroyed the classified model; why blogs are important and where to view and track them; what SEO is and why you should understand it; why you should have a FaceBook profile (though I still sourly refuse). Whether the audience is awake or not at that point, I proffer the Trojan Horse: The Multimedia News Release (a.k.a. Social Media Release; New Media Release; StoryCrafter; Social Media Press Release).

This wonderful distraction is forcing our clients and the industry as a whole to consider the kinds of multimedia they can include with their announcements. This should be a proclamation, not a question: "Multimedia Can Enhance This Announcement!" This should have been a statement being made for years, not weeks and months. If Multimedia can't enhance your announcement, should it be an announcement at all? Even dividend announcements can be enhanced with Multimedia (though maybe not emailed to bloggers, right Chris?).

For years, but prior to Mr. Foremski's compelling coup de grâce of the press release (was this really a coup de grâce or a cold shower?), we were all content arguing about the quality of the writing in press releases. This was the original sin. Why are we deconstructing a release that’s DOA (according to many) anyway? Why separate quotes from facts?

The content that is included in the information a company is disseminating is vital to so many different people. The content can range from stock repurchasing to inventing the most authentic Social Media Press Release in the industry. Wouldn’t improving writing ability solve the submerged quandary? Some journalists like a narrative. They want to be told a story. They already knew where to copy and paste (and isn’t that what an SMPR compels them to do anyway?). Let’s give these journalists a little more credit (and assistance) than our interns.

As an Editor and as a Consultant, I have been told numerous times that a press release without media outreach can result in little pickup. The exception to this rule is with market-moving information, breaking news and compelling information on new products, new features. There is a ton of news that will get picked up in trades as well, regardless of bells and whistles: personnel announcements, licensing agreements, etc. Emerging companies and start-ups have a much harder time garnering pickup ... and sometimes for them, a TechCrunch post is all they want. However, not every client is focused on blogs first. In fact, the large majority are focused on mainstream media and major online publications first (though it could be argued that TechCrunch, GigaOm, Engadget, Gizmodo, etc. aren't looked at as 'blogs' anymore.).

Our consultations have to address the following quandaries from our clients:

• How do I start a blog?


• Which blogs do I respond to?


• Should our CEO blog?


• If so, will it will be worth their time? How much time?


• What’s the value of a Social Media Release?


• How do I prove it’s worth it before we do one?


• What’s the value of a blog post?


• What’s the value of a friend?


• What’s the value of a friend’s friend?


• How much is a web hit worth?


• How do I leverage Twitter?


• How do I leverage FriendFeed?

These questions all lead to one place: your team. The team is your PR team. We need to have individuals, loyal and savvy BlEdgers, that believe in what the organization is doing … beyond that, they need to have a stake and a say in what you are doing. This team is the one speaking to your analysts, your investors, your beat reporters, your clients, your prospects, your competitors.

Oh, and another thing. Forget you ever heard the phrase “Social Media Distribution.”

“What is Social Media Distribution?” I’ve heard so many clients ask this question.

The Truth is there is no such thing as “Social Media Distribution.” There is just no such thing. “Social Media Distribution” happens by itself. This is why true geeks have issues with the definitions of Social Media, let alone Social Media Distribution. SMD, if there were such a thing, is an organic result of compelling content … nothing more. As a few of us have said for years, your content must be compelling. If it is, there will be conversations. We will enable both … nothing more.

Let us all get back to the basics of being consultants to our clients … creative stakeholders that believe in what they’re doing because they do … and we believe them.

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Robert Seidman: Twitter and FriendFeed: Both Will Thrive, Both Will Survive

Robert Seidman: Twitter and FriendFeed: Both Will Thrive, Both Will Survive

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I really liked this post regarding the Twitter/FriendFeed debate. I agree with a lot of the assesment, I disagree with many of the main points. Without going point by point, the biggest mistake in Robert's take on the two is SMS.

It isn't SMS that will make the difference between sites like FF and Twitter ... it's the iPhone and other smartphones. Apps like Mail2FF are enabling users to add rich media to their lifestreams instantly. This is the biggest sea change and the biggest difference between the two. 140 characters of text and a tinyurl is not going to maintain.

friendfeed vs. twitter

It's going to be very interesting to see how this all unfolds... I remember when people started emigrating from Friendster to MySpace back in 2003 or 2004. It was very sudden ... and it was Friendster's fault. The site became too slow to even log on. That and the new shiny allowed you to add music and background images!!!! Sounds familiar, doesn't it?




The conversation about the emigration was even taking place on Friendster ...

FriendFeed is being discussed heavily by the geeks and bleeding-edgers. Though it's a very small group, it is very influential.


We will see how much buzz this site gets over the next two weeks when people return from their vacations.





I remember being riveted by the Wii's rise on the blogosphere and keeping track of the stats. This is going to be a great case-study if we remember to record it.


I hope I don't forget that FriendFeed is still only a tadpole in comparison ... While I think it will be my nervecenter and could possibly steal some time from my rss aggregators, it hasn't reached critical mass (or the mainstream) yet. Let's see when the shark eats the whale...

Google Should Buy FriendFeed

It's simple. Google should buy FriendFeed now. The longer they wait, the more the asking price will be. I'm not talking wait Friendster long ... but the time is now to buy FriendFeed. If they don't, Microsoft, AOL or Yahoo! should.

Google's suite works the best with FriendFeed. The aggregator model of microblogging and lifestreaming is it. I thought it would come in the form of netvibes or iGoogle, but not everyone sees it that way.

PicasaWeb works incredibly well with FriendFeed ... maybe just as good as FlickR, but I'm a Picasa guy since the Hello days when FlickR didn't have a bulk uploader. But back then, just finding a free site to post photos to was tough enough. Yahoo Photos was around but you couldn't link to any of the photos because the links kept changing. That was also around the same time when blogger stopped offering their Pro level of service which allowed photo storage.

Anyhow. Buy FriendFeed. It's probably only a couple Billion, what's the worst that could happen? This gives you the best application to merge all of the services you offer. It's reactive and preemptive. Do it. Do it.

The Great Migration

A lot of Tweeters and bloggers have been pointing people towards alternatives like FriendFeed and Identi.ca. I am a user of both sites but I think there are significant differences between all three, and certainly the difference between identi.ca and FriendFeed as a replacement to Twitter.

Twitter does a decent job of keeping track of conversations and allowing groups of people to connect. identi.ca does a good job of allowing users to communicate with each other, but connecting and doing other sorts of control-settings are absent. The things both lack is the inclusion of the rest of your online life... kind of a big deal.

FriendFeed solves this problem and allows rich multimedia to improve the interface and experience. It does not include a terrific tool that lets you block parts of users lives you wish not to keep track of. It also doesn't allow you to block friends of friends that act, and name themselves, like Trolls. It has done a great job of making a social network a microblog and lifestream at the same time.

I have a good sense that the creators of FriendFeed will be more reactive than those of Friendster and Twitter. If they act instantly, listen and see the needs before a quick competitor does, they may well lead Twitter by the end of the year.

I want to pay close attention to all of these statistics over the next few months. I expect that this month will bring in a great migration and unless Twitter responds with major upgrades, they're toast.

If you haven't taken a look at FriendFeed ... do it. Take a look, get active, listen, and see how it can help our brands, our organizations and our continuing education.

Idea for post

For measurement, $ per eyeball vs. Degrees of separation.

Twitter is the New Friendster

I did everything I could to resist the temptation of the 'new shiny' a year ago when I started seeing many 'influencers' move to microblogging (some even at the expense of their macroblogs). While Twitter exploded in 2007, I was still a doubter ... and although it may yet fade, I was wrong about it. When I was blogging several times per day plus 5-7 days a week and got tired of it, I thought microblogging would be a bit of a stretch for me. However, sites like FriendFeed have made the idea and result of microblogging much more dynamic, robust and inclusive. Ironically, because of FriendFeed I now see the need for Twitter ... but it's too late.

March 2008
Total Users: 1+ million
Total Active Users: 200,000 per week
Total Twitter Messages: 3 million/day

Read the TechCrunch post and the comments for the whole dialogue ...

While some people say that Twitter has over 3 and nearly 4 million registered users, others will say that "Registered users is an absolutely meaningless statistic." That is not to say that over 1 million registered users is small potatoes. In fact, of Twitter's one million users, a good number of them are major influencers. From Michael Arrington, Robert Scoble, Dave Winer, Jason Calcanis and Om Malik to Steve Rubel, Chris Brogan and David Parmet, all of these major influencers are on Twitter ... some of them even have over 20,000 followers! What does this mean? When each one of them updates twitter on what they are doing, thinking, reading or working on, that information will spread faster than it would anywhere else.

That said, Twitter is text based and too simple. It does not account for our entire online lives and would force us to integrate our other destinations into this platform. This is why FriendFeed could succeed. Rather than add a step to my online life, FriendFeed keeps track for me.

For example, I just posted 62 pictures to PicasaWeb (Google's photo property). Rather than going to twitter and inputting that activity, FriendFeed already knew (though it could operate a little faster). Think about this on a larger scale ... from sharing and starring news on Google Reader to uploading videos to YouTube, FriendFeed allows you to publish your online life ... not just 140 characters.

Twitter is certainly better than FriendFeed at certain things, but I hope they view this as a major threat or else Twitter will be the next Friendster, and not just due to the constant downtime ...

OMD

The true dichotomy is the gap between wire services capabilities and copy acceptability.

We spoke a while back about "downstream blues" ... the fact is the large majority of websites still display wire feeds in ASCII text or something very close to it. And, as all you fervent email pitchers know, many of the mainstream media publications can't accept attachments or stream video, let alone render html on their workstations.

Not trying to coin a term or anything, but we got to get the term 'social media' out of everyones head as if the whole world's media revolves around whether a blogger reads a press release. It is, and will be for a very long time, the opposite. The OmniMedia Distribution would cover all the bases and not piss 'purists' like Jeremy Pepper off.

When a company has something to announce, they don't have the time, effort, budget or know-how to kill all the birds with one stone. They need to reach as many influencers as possible with the same content. This is where a splash page/mnr/smpr, blog post/microblog activity, purpose-built delicious page, clever mediaroom, visible wire, and good story come in.

Each big announcement needs to pull these realms together to ensure your outlets are covered. You could have everything set ... but if it doesn't get run re-run on the AP, Reuters, Bloomberg, NYT, etc., is your client going to be happy? Are they quantity focused or quality focused? Paper or screen?

In the techworld, TechCrunch, GizModo, Engadget, and Slashdot aren't blogs any more. They are web publications with incredible influence and authority. This is progress. Strategy for each announcement has to be well-thought out ... five moves ahead. Who gets the exclusive? Anyone? What tier blog should we not consider responding to? How do I define my tiers for this particular client?

OMD

1. Press release blasted over the wire in a narrative form via a credible wire.
2. Social Media Press Release with video, photo, documents, files, tags, links, comments, etc available at a splash page which is prominently featured in the blast press release (the higher the traffic to the site the better).
3. Blog post from the company (preferably written by the product or group manager, if not the C-Suite) discussing the project, product, service, etc. in an informal way.
4. Microblog campaign on Twitter/Friendfeed/etc. to discuss pitches, coverage, issues
5. SMPR linked to the company's mediaroom (as a pop-out, to preserve traffic).
6. Del.icio.us page with all the company's background info, white papers, positive coverage, press release, SMPR, etc.
7. Interviews with key product managers/C-Suite/Celebrities on the launch and the product on every video site with the same headline as the OMR
   

There are probably a lot more things that are out now that can be included and there will certainly be more things in the future that can be plugged in ... did I miss something? Thoughts?

The Social Media Press Release Is Bullcrap

If I'm gonna launch this blog with a big post, might as well not tiptoe around much of the buzz I hear at every event I attend or presentation I give.

The Social Media Press Release is bullcrap. Allegedly the SMPR evolved out of Tom Foremski’s “Die! Press Release! Die! Die! Die!" post where he lambasted the press release in its current form. Enter the ever-clever Todd Defren with his template.


While including links to social networks and deconstructing the press release into bullet points is a best-practice, it's still a press release... meaning: DOA, according to Foremski.

The press release used to serve one function: Deliver news from an organization to the media and markets as quickly, effectively and efficiently as possible. Over the last 15 years, the purpose of the press release has changed dramatically. From needing to meet disclosure (after all, public companies issue most of the press releases every day), to wanting to reach consumers directly; the press release has become a message for everyone. The true genesis of conversation. In fact, the press release is still a very valued tool among thousands of journalists worldwide that expect and require language directly from the company. Journalists will use the content, sometimes verbatim, in composing their coverage. The vehicle itself won't garner coverage. Bullet points and isolated quotes won't make a penguin fly. It's the content that matters most. Whether the vehicle has been abused by some, if not all at some point, is also not the question.

Let's put everything in perspective. The legs a press release has are only as long as its legs.You cannot waive a magic wand at an announcement and expect stellar coverage. You cannot put lipstick on a pig. But lipstick on a beautyqueen can win you a pageant.

It all starts with proper and aggressive counseling to our clients. Our clients should not be convinced that Marketers and Advertisers own 'Social Media.' 'Social Media' by its essence is conversation between at least two parties. Whereever there is conversation, exit Marketing and Advertising. They are in the business of push, or SPAM, really. Whether it be on TV, print, radio or billboards, they target you where you are and where you are likely not engaged (let alone their target audience). When PR practitioners engage in SPAM is where our discipline loses credibility.

Every press release, for the most part, is an opt-in endeavor. Whether they enter by search, ticker symbol, or via a web destination, Pubilc Relations professionals should be able to tell you exactly how many people clicked the link, how they navigated through the site, when and where there was a spike in traffic, and how many journalists viewed the announcement. When PR Newswire gives statistics back to clients, we don't fudge or mislead in any way. Though those numbers don't compete with cirulation and impression numbers given to you by advertisers and other vendors, our numbers are exact and measurable. Further, those people are very often influencers that rely on us to provide quality and breaking news from credible sources.

If there's one thing you take away from this post: Concentrate on the horse then the cart. When it's time to look into carts, don't pinch pennies there ... because that's what takes you to the finish line.

UPDATE: Obscene language has been removed so as not to offend the squeamish.
Point of Clarification: I do believe vehemently that all assets, if they help tell your story, should be included with a press release whether it's embedded video, a powerpoint presentation, excel file or logo. The term and the solution have become distractions.