March 2007
Commentary by blog and social media consultant Josh Hallett on the use of blogs for public relations, media, marketing, communication & branding and from time-to-time the unsolicited opinion.
« February 2007 |
Main
| April 2007 »
Sprint has cranked up their Ambassador program again. This time they're sending out the new UpStage phone aka the Samsung M620. I received mine this morning (Saturday FedEx delivery!). A quick run-through confirms some of the stuff I've read: It's a slick package, but there are definitely some usability issues. Specifically, you find yourself constantly flipping the phone over to enter text/URLs and then flipping back to use it. I plan to play a bit more and post some other thoughts later.
A quick photoset of the un-boxing is here. As with the previous Sprint Ambassador program, users are given a phone and 6 months of service to evaluate the product/service.
This afternoon I stole away a few hours from working to attend the last Spring Training game of the season in Winter Haven, FL. The Cleveland Indians were playing the Toronto Blue Jays. The Blue Jays won, 6-2. The complete photoset can be found on Flickr.
Scrapblog has their preview out in the wild. I first saw the product a month or two ago while visiting the Scrapblog gang down in Miami. The preview version is the same thing, but de-bugged. They opened things up for testing a day ago and I was impressed that the few issues I found have already been fixed :-)
So far I've created a few Scrapblogs around my photography, you can view them here and here. You can also export your finished Scrapblogs to a blog or Flickr (like I did).
However, the Flickr version does not do the product justice. You really need to play around to see what it can do. You can jump right in, or check out their quick demo video.
If you need to be reminded, April Fools Day is this Sunday. Last year I created the short-lived merger of Steve Rubel and Jeremy Pepper via PepperRubel PR. The pressure was on for this year though...what could I do as a follow-up?
Well I have had a number of ideas and was beaten to the punch on another....but ultimately I don't have the time to get something done by Sunday. With that said, here are some of the ideas I've been mulling over. Most of them are based upon available domains.
TNN: Twitter News Network (twitternewsnetwork.com)
Create a news site that gets all its news from Twitter. I don't mean real news though....the standard banal stuff that Twitter is famous for. We would also create a video news show with a real anchor reading Twitter headlines, i.e. "We're receiving breaking news out of San Francisco......Chris Messina is back from 45 minutes at the gym......Shocking news out of New York, Steve Rubel is considering not blogging for a day....emergency crews are responding now." The crawl at the bottom of the news show would be a continuous Twitter feed.
Caveman PR (cavemanpr.com)
Mashing up the Geico Cavemen and Un-Frozen Caveman Lawyer from SNL, we would create a PR firm by cavemen, for cavemen. If Phil Hartman were still alive I could see him saying, "You're attempts at controlling the message frighten me. Then these strange blogs and RSS....how do these messages arrive on my computer? Do tiny demons carry them?"
NoLifePR (nolifepr.com)
Forget Second Life and their few million residents, how about the after-life. Name a bigger target audience than the dead? They are also a somewhat captive audience :-) Better yet, every major city in the U.S. has a Bacon's for the dead, they're called obituaries. Seeing the opportunity, we'll create a PR/marketing firm for reaching that huge audience. I see product placements at graves as a huge opportunity.
PayPerMule (paypermule.com)
Building upon the controversy around PayPerPost, I am going to create PayPerMule. Need somebody to transport your drugs across the country or the world? Pay one of our mules as little as $5 and they'll transport it for you. Disclosure is not required and is not suggested.
PayPerPoop (payperpoop.com)
Extending the PPP theme once again. Medical research firms want to know what you're eating and what it's doing to your body, with PayPerPoop you get paid to do what you do every day...poop!
Yesterday afternoon in Orlando Alex Rudloff, Ryan Price and I brainstormed a few other ideas around the PayPer-X format. PayPerDate (aka prostitution), PayPerTweet (paying folks to Twitter), PayPerFriend (I think that exists already). You get the point.
Oh well, I think I have staked my claim to a few ideas. If you want to take any of these and run with them, feel free.
In reality the title of this post is a misnomer. It's not hard to 'sell' Flickr at all. Why? Just about everybody I ever show Flickr to says, 'Wow, that's cool, where do I sign up?"
For organizations, especially non-profits, the big 'selling' point of Flickr is the photo resize function. If you're not familiar with it, when you upload a photo Flickr will automatically (or is it auto-magically) create up to six different sizes for you. You can then easily use any of these sizes on your web site or blog.
Above is a screenshot of the 'All Sizes' function. As you can see Flickr has created the following versions for me: Square 75x75, Thumbnail 67x100, Small 161x240, Medium 335x500, Large 687x1024 and Original 1074x1600. All I have to do is cut/paste the code into my page.
Once you get started Flickr also becomes somewhat addictive as Amber is finding out. I recently noted my 5000th photo, a few weeks later I'm now close to 7000.
The latest issue of Wired has a cover story by Clive Thompson about the See-Through CEO, or how blogs are transforming how CEOs and businesses work. The one pull-quote that speaks volumes is this one:
Google is not a search engine. It's a reputation management system. By enhancing transparency, companies can manage their images as never before.
Think about that for a minute. When you want to know just about anything you head to Google (or your favorite search tool) and search.
Google yourself. What comes up? Like it or not that's your public face to millions (if not billions) of people.
While a newspaper story or crisis might make a slight blip on the radar, it's the long-term search results that will always stay.
Recently a friend had some bad news written about his company in the newspaper. I suggested that they blog about the situation, provide their version of the story. Why? Because a few months or years from now somebody will say, "Hey you remember when X did Y back in Z?"
A quick Google search will help refresh everyone's memory. What will turn up? The original newspaper article? With many newspapers putting content behind pay walls it will probably be a blog talking about the story. If the company blogs the story, what will most likely show up first a few months/years from now will be their post.
In many ways you're writing your own history. Yes this can be abused, but the blogosphere has a great system of checks and balances. They're called comments and links. If you try to BS or 'cover' a story you'll be outed. Stick with the truth.
In the end, who is telling your story? Is it the media or a blogger. Why not tell it yourself?
Constantin posts that Paull Young has joined Converseon. As a student, Paull made a name for himself in the PR-blogging world and was a sought after hire. (Other students are you paying attention?)
Congrats to Paull and good catch on the part of Converseon.
It seems that every time I turn around Helio is launching a new phone. Dave has the details of the new 'Ocean' model. Not only is Helio launching some cool handsets, they're building in some great features and functionality. Looking at the phone it sort of reminds me of the SONY Mylo.
Even though I am a huge Apple fanboy I might wait for version two of the iPhone. Who knows, perhaps Helio will have something better :-)
John Rife, who I first met at BlogOrlando, is traveling across the U.S., from Florida to California and back documenting his trip on FindingAmerica.tv.
Along the way he's posting photos and videos of the trip. Check it out.
The always-fun Grayson tagged me with the 'Seven Songs' meme. Like many other folks it's a mixture of old-favorites and current stuff that get's heavy rotation on my iPod.
- Enjoy the Silence - Depeche Mode
- Xpander - DJ Sasha
- Drive that Fast - Kitchens of Distinction
- Ceremony - Joy Division
- Round & Round - New Order
- Clocks - Coldplay
- Home & Dry - Pet Shop Boys
It's tough to pick just seven. On any day I'll listen to just about anything by: Depeche Mode, The Cure, Erasure, Joy Division, New Order, Electronic, Pet Shop Boys, Nitzer Ebb, NIN, Dj Sasha, Digweed, Bjork or Coldplay. I know David and I share musical tastes...how about it Dave?
I spent the travel time I've had over the past few days to catch up on some podcasts and videoblogs I subscribe to. While watching Jason Calacanis interview Steve Rubel I noted this interesting line from Jason about those famous 'stakeholders'.
Stakeholders, defined as people that don't want you talking about their mistakes.
Interesting way of putting it.
Over at Marketing Profs, Jeanne Bliss writes about Southwest Airlines hiring a 'Forgiveness Officer'. It's an interesting concept, but what caught my eye was a single line in her post:
When is the Apology Sincere vs. a "Tactic"
This makes me think of the missive I
wrote about blogs a while back. Are you blogging because you are naturally conversational, or because you want to appear to be? Jeanne goes on to say:
But now that everyone else is on the apology bandwagon -- are we going to be numbed by the outpouring of letters that we receive as customers? For all of the **&^%$$^& crazy stuff going on -- are we going to be getting apology letters constantly?
The Airlines are realizing that culpability is important and they are mea-culping all over the place. Great, that's step one. But anyone who says they are sorry have got to mean it. Step two is taking action to make the pain stop.
It's just like when our little brothers punched us, then said he was sorry because mom made him. You never really took him totally seriously a) because mom was twisting his arm behind his back to say the words, and b) he'd apologized many times before just to come back and punch another day.
Good point. There are a number of companies that might never be able to apologize, no matter how hard they try.
John Moore of Brand Autopsy has posted a series of interesting queries about the value of certain brands/companies. He calls it his Would You Care series.
Basically, would you care if 'Company X' vanished? His latest post is about Chili's.
Does Chili’s provide such a unique product and customer experience that we would be saddened if it didn’t exist? Does Chili’s treat its employees so astonishingly well that those workers would not be able to find another employer to treat them as well? Does Chili’s forge such unfailing emotional connections with its customers that they would fail to find another restaurant that could forge just as strong an emotional bond?
What say you?
He asks the same about
Gateway and
Eddie Bauer. It's a different way of measuring the value and quality of a company and gets me thinking. I really wouldn't care if Chili's vanished, but there are some restaurants that I don't want to see go away.
Think about your own organization, would people really care if it vanished? Are you providing such a unique and personable service that people would miss it?
I'm not normally a dog guy, but Dave's puppy is just too damn cute.
Yesterday I spent a bit of time at PodCamp Atlanta. I'm not a podcaster, so why was I there? Well three things: 1. Amber and Rusty asked me to kick-off the event with a keynote/session on social media and the un-conference format. 2. There were lots of familiar faces and friends that I wanted to see. 3. I'm always down for learning new things.
To kick things off I asked the audience a series of questions. It was interesting to see that the majority of the group were already creating content in some way online, i.e. podcasts or blogs. Of those, about half were interested in business cases/monetization while the other half could care less about money. They do it for passion. That passion was refreshing compared to the audience at SoCon07 which seemed mostly corporate.
At first the audience didn't open up too much. Only a small percentage had ever been to an un-con so they were unfamiliar with the format. That forced me to speak a bit too much perhaps, but eventually the questions and comments started coming. Once people realized they could say what they wanted, when they wanted the vibe changed. Good stuff.
Leonard Witt shared a great un-con experience....he wanted a more hands-on session (which wasn't on the schedule) and it ended up happening. Ask as ye shall receive :-)
However there are always the folks that want to turn a learning experience into a sales pitch. One session I sat in turned into a commercial for their services, I was really tempted to say, "This isn't about you....."
The venue was great, I especially liked the 'lounge' area which was full of comfortable leather chairs, sofas and other tables for small impromptu gatherings. When I wasn't in a session I was sitting somewhere chatting with somebody. I would say this has been the nicest conversation area I've ever seen at a conference.
Who was missing? The 'traditional' media. Amber said a bunch of folks from the AJC were invited, but didn't show up. The AJC was also a no-show at SoCon07. However, the independent/traditional media gang from Creative Loafing were there. I say independent/traditional for a reason. In the real world I think Creative Loafing feels they aren't traditional or mainstream media, compared to larger papers, etc. However, in room full of bloggers and podcasters, they are traditional media.
There was an AP reporter around for a bit. In almost-liveblogging style he filed a report soon after the event. For a bit though, the tables were turned on the AP reporter. Dave and Amber began to interview him, which didn't go too well. (Photo Below)
Congrats to Amber and Rusty for putting on a great event.
My PodCamp Atlanta photos are here, the general photo group is here.
Other recaps from: Stephanie, Grayson, Ellie's Dad and Harmen's not-so-great day.
Yes I am a bit late on this one....a week late actually, but like many others I wanted to share a few thoughts about New Comm Forum. From a conference blogging standpoint you can look at Joe Thornley and Chip Griffin who did the most comprehensive recaps. Heck, Nathan Gilliat wasn't even there and he has some comments. Nathan was able to follow along virtually.
Todd Defren wrote a comment that was often said among the usual gang.
Many of the veteran attendees noted that the crowds were more “corporate” than ever. This doesn’t mean that the suits want to mess things up; everyone I talked to from the corporate side seemed genuinely eager to learn; to be more open and candid.
While this is true and many of the conversations/topics have been done over and over again....it's all new to the majority of the audience. In situations like this I am more than willing to share knowledge with others.
However, I do learn a great deal. I pay attention to how the audience is receiving and perceiving the content, what questions are they asking, what keeps them up at night, is ROI the only measure in corporate-land, etc.
As an independent consultant I sometimes have experiences with corporations that make me glad I don't work for one, but the audience at New Comm showed that the corporate world is wanting to learn, for their benefit and for the benefit of their customers.
Lee Hopkins asks if it's too lake to join the conversation. Never, but it also depends on your objectives. If you are just wanting to write a personal blog for friends and family it's never too late. If you're looking to use a blog for marketing purposes in a saturated market, it might be a long road ahead. I think this is what Lee is referring to.
When people say, "I'm too late" or "How can I build an audience..." I always point to Jeremiah Owyang. Jeremiah's been blogging a short time (relatively speaking) and has made quite a name for himself.
It seems like every week there is a new blogger that I add to my RSS list. Recently I've been getting some great nuggets from Dan Blank. It's not only the content a blogger creates, it's what they find. In the case of Dan, he recently pointed to a list of journalistic uses for blogs. Good stuff.
So have you heard about the Twitter? All the kids are big into it now. It seems like SXSW was the big tipping point for Twitter. While SXSW is a big cultural event, I look for bigger adoption signs.....like the man upstairs.
Yes, Jesus has a Twitter account: twitter.com/jesus/ As of now he hasn't posted anything which seems right, since it's not 'time' yet. I guess it's fitting that in these technological times that Jesus will announce his return via Twitter.
On a related note, it seems strange that he only has 9 followers as of this post. I guess Christianity ain't what it used to be.
A project I was involved with just launched this week, the revised Yahoo Search Blog. I provided design and MT support/implementation on the project in conjunction with VOCE Communications. For the re-design they wanted some simple and flexible that would scale well on various resolutions.
The switchover had a few short-lived DNS related issues, but everything is up and running now. This is the second project I've worked on with Yahoo, last year I helped launch the Yahoo Search Marketing blog.
Rogers Cadenhead has an interesting post about a Florida paper trying to track down a local anonymous blogger.
I've been reading the Record for a decade. I can't recall a single time where it conducted an effort to catch a rapist, robber or murderer anywhere near the scope of this manhunt for a blogger.
Next weekend I'll be in Atlanta for PodCamp Atlanta and some other fun stuff. Amber Rhea and Rusty Tanton have asked me to lead the opening session to set the stage for the conference. I'll be talking about the social media movement overall and how podcasting and other forms of personal publishing & expression are changing our lives. I'm looking forward to it. Things kick off Friday night with a reception at Manuel's Tavern.
Then, on Sunday, Toby Bloomberg, Jeneane Sessum and a few others are planning a dinner/meet-up at 5 Seasons Brewing from 5pm till.....
One of the interesting points to come up during Jeffrey Treem's session on social media for employee engagement was that internal implementations of social media tools are great proving grounds.
Often corporate communicators fear the risks involved with social media, however internal instances can have a great deal of control. As the tools are adopted it also helps shift the culture internally. Organizations learn about conversation and interaction with groups outside their normal circles.
That's a good thing.
Just got finished with a great keynote from Dave Weinberger at New Communications Forum. For the audience (that I think is mostly corporate comms...) it was a great message. Shel Israel has some greats notes from the session and so does Joe Thornley.
During Paul Gillin's session...from Tom Foremski (paraphrasing):
What's kiiling the revenue stream for newspapers is search engine marketing and not really blogs or social media. It's easier to sell shampoo via a search result than an ad next to journalism.
I snuck in and took a few shots of Shel Holtz leading the Podcasting Pre-Conference Session to a packed room at New Communications Forum. The next few days should be fun. I've decided I'm going to concentrate more on photography than blogging the sessions. The photoset will be here.
Later today I'll be packing for my trip to Vegas for New Communications Forum. As I have said before, NewComm Forum is one of the best events of the year. Like many conferences it's a combination of great sessions and great people. I jokingly said to a friend, they should just cancel all the sessions and just let us all hang out.
I'm looking forward to seeing: Shel I, Shel H, Mike, David, Brian, Joe, Kami and many, many more friends.
I'll be on two panels and helping with the post-conference wrap-up session on Friday afternoon.
Looking forward to seeing you there!
In the past few weeks I've had some interesting experiences with corporations talking about social media. Many realize that they need to be 'there'. There being defined as where people (and their customers) are. They say they want to 'join' the conversation.
However, their definition of conversation is not a two-way street. They want all the benefits of blogging but none of the negatives. Sorry folks, it's part of the process. If you want to benefit from social media you need to be willing to take the good and the bad.
For some reason I was under the assumption that all inbound text-messages on Cingular were free, it was only outbound that cost...hmm. As a heavy Twitter user I was 'surprised' to see a nice 'addition' to my cellphone bill this past month :-)
For future reference, almost 800 messages costs a little over $80.00.
Shel Israel has slowly been working on his next book (and follow-up to Naked Conversations). Today he posted an overview of Global Neighbourhoods. Go check it out.
One question that always comes up is, "How long should my blog posts be?" One consistent answer is, don't make them too long. However, like any 'rule' there are exceptions.
In my case, one of the most linked-to and read posts happens to be my longest post ever: How to Blog a Conference
I think in that case, if you create good valuable content that is researched and well written it can be a a great resource. So, sure keep those blog posts kinda short, but don't be afraid to write that novel every once and a while.
Update: Kevin O'Keefe also talks about post length.
