CustomScoop's PR Blog Jots

Tough Love Can Backfire (and Other PR Blog Jots)

RIAA Needs to Consider its Image
Common Sense PR
While allowing that sometimes taking an unpopular stance is necessary to certain organizations (he uses labor unions as an apropos example), Eric Eggerston points out that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) ought to consider how its public image will be tarnished by its continued legal action against music file sharing. He cites a case against a U.S. Army officer where the RIAA went too far, calling into evidence embarrassing files on the defendants computer that were unrelated to music. Eric warns the RIAA against continuing to pursue action against sympathetic defendants. “There is a time and a place to take a hard stance. To remain firm in the face of negative publicity. To stand by your values. But when your values pit massive corporations against high school kids, single moms and G.I.s, you have to wonder about the underlying strategy. Can they really be that stupid, for that long?”

How Blogging Leads to Business
Personal Branding Blog
Dan Schawbel posts the details of what he calls the “Blog Conversion Cycle,” which demonstrates how a blog can lead to new business for your company. He argues that writing a company blog gives potential customers a new avenue to discovering your company’s products, increasing the likelihood that they will become a paying customer. They may also refer others to your company, or at least to your blog—which may also result in new business. “Customers who refer others in their network to your blog are valuable assets to your company because they are your spokesman. Your customer can create new visitors to your blog, who will go through a similar cycle.”

Facebook News App Debuts
PR Squared
Todd Defren debuts Newshound, an application for Facebook that allows users to save and comment on pages from the web to their Facebook profiles, similar in a sense to del.icio.us and Google News Readers. Todd hopes the application will be picked up by some of the higher-profile Facebook users as a way to spread the word about a new way to share the latest interesting news and links. “By dropping the Newshound bookmarklet to your browser toolbar, you’re empowered to: Save any webpage and add your personal comments (just as you would with del.icio.us); publish up-to 3 of these news items or webpages to your own Facebook profile. (Similar to the “Cool Reading/Links of the Day” posts that many bloggers use when they’re too busy to craft a long post.) You can also publish the Saved News (and Commentary) of up-to 3 of your fellow Newshounders.”

Kryptonite Strikes Back (and Other PR Blog Jots)

Unlocking Blog Relations
What’s Next
BL Ochman reports on yet another possible blogstorm for the infamous Kryptonite bike lock company, who suffered a major online crisis a couple years ago when it was revealed via blogs that their bike locks could be foiled with a simple Bic pen. Another blog has posted about the company, reporting that a pair of bolt cutters can also easily break the lock’s defenses—but this time, Kryptonite responded. They point out that the cutters are professional-strength, running about $600-$700, and only used by thieves with access to such high-end equipment. “Despite the fact that it took them weeks to come up with their response, I think the company has handled the situation in a reasoned and thorough way. Given the breakneck speed with which online communication moves, and the amount of damage that can be done in hours, let alone weeks, the speed is my basic point of contention.”

Even Fictional Characters Need to Update
Brand Flakes for Breakfast
To promote a new show about a computer geek named Chuck, NBC set up several social networking sites in their new character’s name (he is on Twitter, for example), but Darryl Ohrt points out that in order for the marketing ploy to work, “Chuck” needs to keep updating. Just like in real life, if you don’t update your blog or other sites regularly, your followers may lose interest. “The lesson for businesses here is that if you're going to USE social media, use it. Don't create an empty Second Life presence, an empty Twitter page, or non-active social network page. It would be better not to embrace it at all. Chuck just lost an opportunity to build anticipation for his big debut.”

Blocking Software Unnecessary?
Shel Holtz
In response to reports that many companies in Britain have blocked employee access to Facebook and other social networking sites, Shel Holtz questions the necessity of expensive blocking software for employers to hinder employee access to “forbidden” sites. He notes that the lost productivity claimed by the creators of such software is really a myth, and wonders why individual productivity issues can’t be handled by supervisors on a case-by-case basis. “The solution is simple: Establish and communicate policies governing what employees can and cannot do online. The policies should recognize that business value can accrue from these activities and that some personal activities are acceptable, assuming it’s not interfering with the ability to get work done. Supervisors should be trained to identify abuse so that policies are enforced by exception.”

CustomScoop's PR PodJots

Welcome to CustomScoop’s PR PodJots, our weekly rundown of the best of the PR podosphere. Thanks to all who submitted new podcasts this week, I’ve got a couple fresh names on my list!

Activity was a little lighter than usual this week, perhaps everyone joined CustomScoop CEO Chip Griffin on vacation this week.

We begin with Inside PR this week, as our friends to the north

Inside PR – July 27, 2007 – Pitching Best Practices from the Horse’s Mouth

This week on Inside PR, Dave Jones and Terry Fallis interviews Janina Palhares and Brad Matson, segment producers on a morning chat show in Canada. Brad and Janina discuss the media side of pitching.

Janina and Brad receive hundreds of pitches a day, and the best advice they give is that old Shakespeare chestnut, “brevity is the soul of wit.” Keep it short, press releases going on for thousands of words will end up in the trash bin, no matter how important their subject matter may be.

For email, they recommend getting straight to the point with the “who/what/where,” so they can easily weed out anything that may catch their interest. They also recommend capitalizing on relationships, particularly on the phone. If you have a previous relationship with someone, don’t bombard them, but call them when you’re sure you have something that may interest their show (or column, or magazine, etc). Remind them of any previous projects you’ve worked on together, and be sure to be polite when your pitch is rejected.

What I find most interesting about all “pitch advice” from media members is that it all seems so obvious. Be brief, don’t pester with excessive follow-up, know your target, etc. Doesn’t seem that hard to grasp. Yet bad pitches seem to become more ubiquitous every day. I think the problem is a mutual lack of common sense—something that is certainly not unique to communicators.

Managing the Gray #39 – July 27, 2007 – Is New Media Selling Itself Short?

C.C. Chapman discusses the recent Boston Tweetup, which was followed by a screening of a new cooking-themed Catherine Zeta-Jones movie, presented by Startcooking.com. He remarks that it’s terrific that Kathy, one of the hosts of Start Cooking, received a lot of attention at the event, noting that for a podcaster to receive that kind of attention is a great step towards new media going more mainstream.

Because new media is becoming more mainstream, C.C. wonders if podcasters and other new media adopters are selling themselves short. He discusses the monetization of podcasts as an example, arguing that the content that podcasters offer is valuable, no matter how many listeners they may have. He’s not insisting on monetization of podcasts, but thinks that sponsorships and ad buys are going to continue to be important, and should be fair and reasonable—particularly when a show is good.

A caller comments on the Joseph Jaffe iPhone sponsorship idea (in which CustomScoop’s CEO Chip Griffin, at Jaffe’s offer to trade “Across the Sound” sponsorship for an iPhone, sent him one of the new gadgets). He thinks it was a great idea, but that perhaps Jaffe sold his show a little short, arguing that $600 is a pretty paltry sum in exchange for episode sponsorship. What would have been more revolutionary, according to C.C., is if Apple themselves had offered up an iPhone for free, along with a free two-year contract.

He does not want podcasts to become totally monetized, arguing that if they become a “big money” enterprise it will ruin the point behind new media. I agree with this point; part of the beauty of social media is that it’s run by “nobodies,” ordinary people with a passion who start blogging or podcasting or posting on message boards—the day that big business starts running the show will be bleak indeed.

I also must agree about the content creators being undervalued—the problem, I think, is that the Internet is so jam-packed with utter garbage that those not “in the know” assume that everything else must be as well.

Marketing Over Coffee – July 25, 2007 – Getting the Full SEO Bang for your Post

John Wall and Chris Penn discuss a full gamut of ideas this week, but spend some compelling time on search engine optimization, urging marketers to work their niche—find the bloggers that are already interested in your company (or event, or organization, etc), and strike up relationships with them.

Niches are an important aspect to social media marketing, in Chip Griffin’s New Media Cocktail e-book, he points out that finding a specific niche that even a small group of people are passionate about is a great way to raise your profile. John mentions Clarence, of “Do You Know Clarence?” (the second podcast in a row to promote Clarence’s site, which has officially made my feedreader), who runs a separate blog devoted to comic books. He found a niche and ran with it, and found a higher profile as a result.

Also discussed this week:

• Customer surveys
• Using Yahoo Pipes to filter out Harry Potter spoilers
• Increasing SEO through full posts on feedreaders
• 93 days to Podcamp Boston 2007
• Podcamp Pittsburgh 2

Around the PR Podcast Horn (in alphabetical order):

Across the Sound #84 – July 22, 2007 – Joseph Jaffe continues to discuss his “iPhone for an episode” plan, in which CustomScoop’s Chip Griffin sent the podcaster one of the coveted toys in exchange for ATS episode sponsorship. He also responds to Mack Collier's response to the sponsorship plan, and discusses the terrific Plaid Nation tour, with an audio commentary from Plaid founder Darryl Ohrt.

For Immediate Release #261 – July 26, 2007 – Aside from introducing “FIR Cuts” this week (excised portions of FIR that didn’t make it to the final cut), Shel and Neville discussed their well-deserved nomination for a 2007 podcast award, tech acceptance rates in PR, and much more. A common topic this week, they also touch on Todd And’s decision to move the Power 150 to Advertising Age.

PR Junction Podcast – July 24, 2007 – This week, PR Junction host John Hoel discusses the Australian Innovation Festival with the event’s organizers, Peter Westfield and Tegan Mel. According to the show notes, “During the Australian Innovation Festival, participants showcase and promote these innovative and entrepreneurial abilities through an emphasis on the three pillars of future economic growth – excellence in research, development and commercialization.”

Six Pixels of Separation #61 – July 22, 2007 – Mitch Joel continues the discussion on Facebook, plays listener feedback comments, and discusses his upcoming presentation at a Singapore university on the important of social media to public relations. His weekly “6 Points of Separation” involve advice for commenting on blogs or podcasts.

Trafcom News Podcast #60 – July 22, 2007 – This week, Donna discusses the importance for communicators of learning to read from a script and sound natural. She gives tips on when to pause, relaxation, colloquialisms and other tricks to sound as natural as possible when scripted. Donna also discusses other PR podcasts, posting a list of the most indispensable in her show notes.

I Can See Right Through You (and Other PR Blog Jots)

I Know It When I See It
Media Guerrilla
Mike Manuel cites the difficulty most marketers experience in attempting to define transparency—a word he claims is both “grossly overused and under-defined.” He argues that the only way to determine the transparency level most suitable for your company or client is to take a trial by error approach; no company will require the same set of standards, making the already complicated world of online communicating just that much tougher. “In my experience, it rarely comes naturally or quickly, and be it for better or worse, it takes some trial and error. I think the important thing about transparency is that it's not just about an outcome, it's about an effort too. The only way a company can really figure out its own boundaries for transparency in business is if it tries...”

Terrific Apple Ad
What’s Next Blog
I think it’s easy to forget, as we discuss all the ways that social media has changed communications and public relations, that it has also dramatically changed advertising. BL Ochman posts a truly wonderful Apple commercial that I may not have seen otherwise—I’ve been watching most of my TV on DVR lately, fast forwarding through commercials with a relish. Apple is especially good at creating commercials for TV with the potential to become virals, dating all the way back to their ‘80s “Big Brother” Superbowl spot, easily recognizable more than 20 years later when it was morphed into a Hillary Clinton attack ad. “I'm still waiting for iPhone 2 or 3.0 and a provider other than AT&T, but this sure is a magnificent ad.”

Follow the Money--to the Internet
Buzz Machine
Jeff Jarvis criticizes the Republican contribution to the online conversation in current battle for the 2008 presidential election. He notes that by ignoring, or running from, the Internet, the Republicans are shooting themselves in the foot and leaving millions of online dollars on the table. He is also critical of their general participation, noting poor YouTube offerings, low online fundraising and their collective reluctance to take part in the YouTube debate, citing bias. “If internet video is biased it is a damned bad sign for the right and mighty strange considering the leading work done in the medium by the conservatives in the UK, France, and Germany. Hugh Hewitt frets that listening to YouTube will open up Republicans to cheap shots. That’s merely convenient paranoia. They’re looking for excuses to stay away from this dance.”

PR Blog Jots - Social PR Sampler

Twitter PR
Tech PR Gems
In response to Jim Horton’s latest white paper on the use of microblogging platforms like Twitter in a PR capacity, Doug Haslam lists his own conclusions on Twitter’s PR capacity. Doug agrees with Jim that Twitter’s character limit on “tweets” forces users to break down their thoughts into easily digestible morsels, and agrees that PR practitioners should experiment with Twitter. He thinks, however, that Jim ought to expand his viewpoint for the PR use beyond simple internal communications. “I use Twitter, aside from conversation with friends and colleagues, to bring quick attention to developments by clients, blog posts, and news. I try to keep it appropriate to daily discussion, and disclose if I am talking about a client-- confident, of course, that the message is of interest when I do so. I'll be doing more experimentation, and I hope Jim Horton does as well. I didn't see a Twitter ID in his paper-- Jim, what are you doing?”

Facebook PR
PR Squared
Todd Defren discusses the merging world of personal and professional lives among popular social networks, such as Facebook. He cites a blog post he wrote encouraging the use of Facebook for PR pros to build media contacts, and pitch in public—and the accompanying reluctance to do just that among his staff. Todd points out that many PR pros may not want to give reporters access to their personal networks (and the “dubious” content therein), and suggests allowing the media only limited access to profiles. His company plans to start a Facebook group to interact with media professionals. “Eventually we’ll invite any media contacts who are on Facebook (and with whom we have a pre-existing relationship!) to join the SHIFTers group, if they care to use this channel to reach out to our agency all-at-once.  For example, a reporter who joined the SHIFTers Group could post, “I’m on deadline for a story about XYZ – you guys got any XYZ experts over there?” either via a post on the SHIFTers Group wall or via an email to the entire group.”

Second Life PR
Paul Gillin
Linking to a Wired article that dismisses Second Life as little more than a useless marketing platform for Madison Avenue, Paul Gillin wonders about the future of conducting business in a virtual reality medium. He underlines some of the articles more egregious statistics, notably that 85% of people who create avatars eventually abandon them, and that marketers are spending millions on building virtual worlds in Second Life, despite their lack of online visitors. “A particularly interesting comment is at the top of the third page of this profile. It proposes that one of the reasons for Second Life's popularity is that it looks so much like the physical world. This gives marketers a sense of comfort that they don't have when experimenting with the more effective but less familiar tactics that really do work online. In other words, if we can just recreate familiar surroundings, we’ll be okay.”

Crappy Website Traps to Avoid (and Other PR Blog Jots)

"Five Ways that Websites Suck"
Common Sense PR
Eric Eggerston lists his five pet peeves about websites, corporate websites in particular. He urges companies to settle on what exactly they want their website to be, and to assign the best, most imaginative writers to the task of writing the content. He also recommends an even flow and structure for websites, to minimize user confusion, and warns against the tendency to provide too much content; keep it simple and easy to navigate. “It’s great to be able to dig deeper, when you want to find out details about something.  But who wants to spend their entire visit to a website wading through irrelevant information in search of some information that should be easy to find?The company’s inability to narrow its focus and throw out excess verbiage is an insult to the customer or other visitor. If the company can’t be bothered to spend the time pruning repetitive or unnecessary information, why should the website visitor?”

Social Media ROI
Simonsays
Linking to a recent post from Headshift on how to best measure ROI on social web tools, Simon Collister agrees that setting up metrics or tangible deliverables from social media before launching the tool will not work, metrics must be constructed “back to front,” after the tool has been launched. He points out that the direction a website takes, for example, is determined wholly by its users—its ROI cannot be determined until after the fact. Simon also underlines a main point of the Headshift post, that social media tools aren’t a panacea to any company’s issues, and that nothing will ever be one size fits all. “And once we accept that, then we need to adjust our understanding of how to measure these sites and their relationship with users. A relationship ultimely controlled and directed by the users themselves.”

A Use for Twitter's Mobility
BL Ochman
A massive power outage in the San Francisco area yesterday brought down several major websites nationwide, including Typepad (and just as we were fixing to update the CustomScoop blog!), Craigslist, and Technorati. BL Ochman reports that many people were turning to Twitter for up to the minute information, as even those without power and Internet were able to provide updates via mobile phone. Twitter’s mobility advantage does seem to come in handy in a crisis. “Twitter, once again, proved the most up to date and credible source available, as it has last week during the New York City steam explosion. People reported from their cellphones as information became available.”

Navel Gazing (and Other PR Blog Jots)

We're Our Own Worst Critic
Marketing Roadmap
Susan Getgood examines some of the recent “blogstorms’ that have plagued social media, focusing on both the Nikon blog loaner campaign and Debbie Weil’s misstep with the Alli blog. She makes good sense of the Nikon program, pointing out that the blogosphere’s “collective ability to navel gaze” seems to have gotten in the way here, as the program followed all the usual rules for engaging in social media, and all the participants fully disclosed their relationships with Nikon. Susan effectively counters the argument that only a select few received this terrific benefit as well, pointing out that marketers are the natural audience for such a program, and surely not everyone could have been involved. “We cannot expect every outreach, from every company, to benefit every member of the community. It's nice when they do, and I am a firm believer in companies giving back. But sometimes, they just want a little talk about their products, so they reach out to influencers. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.”

You Gotta Have Friends
Communications Overtones
In a relevant post that I missed initially in the wake of the release last week of Edelman’s Social Media Index, Kami Huyse questions the need to use the number of “friends” a person counts on their social network as part of the measurement of their value. She questions the inclusion of that particular metric, as it encourages the idea of “friend building” simply for the sake of driving up numbers, rather than filling one’s network with the most valuable contacts. “Also, doesn't measuring and encouraging friend building just lead to more overload and ultimately a push platform rather than a social platform for interchange of ideas and information?  Right now I would posit that this is the most important use of these social networks.  Drowning is messages I don't care about, say on Twitter, would undermine its usefulness to me.”

MySpace Shouldn't Be Suffering
Marketing Conversations
Linking to a recent Forbes article involving the battle between Facebook and MySpace, which reports that MySpace is losing users to the “shiny new object” Facebook in droves, Chris Abraham wonders if MySpace shouldn’t have an easier time dispatching Facebook. He notes all the advantages of MySpace, and thinks they ought to be decimating the competition. I think he misses the point that Facebook allows outside apps, which is a major draw, but I see his point. “MySpace should be shooting fish in a barrel — they have exclusive content, 2008 political channels, sponsored content, 59 million subscribers, and all of the support of the world’s largest media conglomerates: News Corporation.”

No Such Thing as Info-Overload? (and Other PR Blog Jots)

Attention Crash a Myth?
Shel Holtz
Arguing that there can be no information overload as long as the information is important or relevant to you, Shel Holtz argues that the Rubel-inspired “attention crash” meme making the rounds lately is actually a myth. He points out that when we care about the information we’re getting, we can never have enough. Shel thinks that just as celebrity junkies can never get enough gossip on the latest moves of Paris Hilton, and political junkies will never tire of sites devoted to Beltway gossip, social media junkies will never truly experience the much-anticipated crash. “It seems that everything that goes around comes around—this is almost word-for-word the same fear expressed a decade ago. And I still don’t buy. I still believe that we can’t get enough information about the stuff we care about. As I noted earlier, we’ll simply get used to it, make necessary adjustments, apply new tools to help us filter the stuff we care about from everything else and everything will be just fine.”

"Simspons" Missed Opportunity?
Young PR
While I recently hailed “The Simpsons Movie” social media marketing as the best of the summer movies, Paull Young thinks they missed an opportunity with their converted 7/11 Kwiki-Mart promotion. He argues that the campaign should have included a dedicated website for visitors to upload photos and connect with other “Simpsons” fans and share photos and videos of store visits (definitely a good idea, although I’m not sure his idea for an in-store computer would fly). I still think the film did a great job online, but am starting to think my exuberant praise may have been slightly biased. “At the very least, stick a computer terminal in the store where the public can visit a microsite featuring photos and videos from each of the Kwik-e-Marts uploaded by their peers. Punters could upload their pictures in-store or at home - tag them, share them with their friends, stick them on their websites/social network pages and easily help 7-11 and the Simpson’s share this stunt with the world.”

Buzz or Product Placement?
Strategic Public Relations
Kevin Dugan ponders a recent Today show interview, in which Lester Holt sat down with Mark Malkoff, a comedian intent on visiting each of Manhattan’s 171 Starbucks locations in a single day. As it turned out, Malkoff accomplished his goal, and Starbucks was able to cash in on national television. Kevin thought at first the interview might be network news product placement, a theme that’s been wending its way through public relations blogs of late, but seems to settle on the idea that Malkoff is using a powerful corporate brand to promote his personal one. “I'll argue that, while Malkoff's stunt is creative, he's doing little more than hitching his wagon to Starbuck's brand. But the end result is priceless -- some serious air time on a national network (during a slow news day). It's one more example of the power of a passionate customer and a brand with some serious gravitas.”

On the List
The Buzz Bin
Geoff Livingston questions our apparent need for “royalty” in any community; he seems to argue that the social media “A-list” can be seen an extension of America’s celebrity obsessed culture. But how important is to actually be A-list, in terms of influence? Geoff admits that he too can be star struck at times, but is quick to point out that the content produced by our marketing stars is not always necessarily of the utmost quality. He notes that sometimes, becoming famous to a small group may be better in the end than becoming widely known, quoting Brian Oberkirch’s thoughts on the matter. “How true. And so, while it’s easy to get bedazzled by the brilliance of our A-Listers and have our heads in the cloud, we should keep our feet on the ground. Remember what’s important, one reader at a time. That’s the community we seek to participate in.”

CustomScoop's PR PodJots

Welcome to CustomScoop’s PR PodJots, a weekly rundown of the best of the marketing and public relations podosphere.

As always, please submit any excellent podcasts we’ve missed to the comments section, as we are always searching for interesting additions to our weekly rotation.

First up this week is Heidi Miller, returning for a several week podcasting hiatus with a tongue-in-cheek rant about social media overload. Short and sweet, Heidi has the honor of becoming the first podcaster to have her entire episode recapped, rather than select tidbits:

Diary of a Shameless Self Promoter – July 9, 2007

Heidi Miller attributes her lack of blogging and podcasting in the entire month of June to “Social Media Stupor Syndrome with underlying Microblogging Paralysis.” She decided to take off the month of June, and discovered that everyone else was in complete agreement.

Lee Hopkins, Mitch Joel, and many others are also discussing social media overload. Heidi laments that after June, she had several hundred posts in her feed reader, hundreds of emails, more than fifty podcasts to sort through, and a lack of desire to deal with any of them. Why do we feel so much pressure to read and listen to everything we can get our hands on?

Unplugging, she argues, is not the answer. While it may be relaxing, it may also lead to worse overload when you finally plug back in. So how to handle the volume? Choose the “two to four things that are actually the focus of our online energy.” Certainly, sign up for new social networks and accept connections from friends that use them—but leave your profile dormant unless you decide that the network truly warrants your attention.

Consider consolidating your email into one basic interface, or abandoning it all together in favor of communicating only through social media. Anything that simplifies your online activity—pick and choose where your energy belongs, and focus only on those. Let everything else fall to the background.

I agree that picking what works best for you and sticking to it is effective, but I would probably not put a profile up on a page just to be found, and then not be active within that community. I’ve selected Pownce over Twitter (I know, I’m a rarity!), and Facebook over LinkedIn, for example. I know this may actually limit my possibilities…but it also alleviates any “social media guilt” I would end up feeling if I signed up for LinkedIn and then did nothing with it (as I did, regrettably, with MyRagan).

Across the Sound #83 – July 15, 2007

New iPhone owner Joseph Jaffe begins this week’s podcasts with an astonishing display of "Simpsons" voice imitations from Scott Monty—I especially enjoyed his “Barney,” Monty is undeniably gifted. Joseph goes on to discuss (as I did over on the CustomScoop blog this week) that “The Simpsons Movie,” premiering next week, has executed a rather clever marketing campaign in recent months—noting in particular the 7-11 transformation into Kwik-E Marts across the country.

Later in the podcast, Jaffe responds to a challenge from Jay Berkowitz (of the Ten Golden Rules to Internet Marketing podcast), who calls for Jaffe, Mitch Joel, and Adam Curry to answer a listener question he received regarding how podcasts are different (or similar?) to radio programming.

Jaffe begins by pointing out that podcasting is often quite hokey, with somewhat cheesy musical interludes and bumpers similar to many old-school radio programs, but that similarities between the two end there. He notes that podcasting is often far more irregular, and is a part of the “magic of RSS,” because there is “unpredictable continuity” to new episodes. He argues that this aspect makes podcasting unique in social media; if you let too much time pass between entries on a blog, for example, your numbers will dip. With a podcast, your subscribed listeners will always be there.

While I agree that the sporadic nature of the podcast is an important difference, I think that mobility is the greatest difference between podcasts and radio. They’re portable! Once you’ve got them downloaded, you can listen whenever you want. With radio, you have to be tuning in each day at a specific time, or else you’re out of luck. Until they create online downloads for broadcast radio shows (I’m dying for this to happen with Howard Stern), podcasts will always be very, very different.

Also discussed:

• Audio comments from Rick Couture and David Jacobs from the Connected World Podcast
• An audio comment from C.C. Chapman
• Discussion on monetizing podcasts and an audio comment from Tim Brunelle on various B2B applications
• An update on the 100th episode sponsorship opportunity plus an irreverent experiment, which if successful, could be a new way to monetize podcasts - an iPhone for an episode!
• Audio comment from Chip Griffin on Content wants to be free...
• An update on Fatblogging plus an audio comment from Sebastian Keil on FatTwittering
• Winners & Losers - Both are Debbie Weil, who should have known better when she asked her friends and colleagues to help seed a conversation on a client's blog. Pretty sad, when your friends turn on you though. Also a tangent on breaking the ice in blog conversations.

For Immediate Release #259 – July 19, 2007

This week, Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz discuss the Edelman Social Media Index release, among other issues. Neville describes the index as a new methodology for measuring online influence, including all social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Pownce and other areas.

Bloggers are issued a score based on six criteria for each platform—some of the criteria for blogs include frequency of updates, Alexa ranking, RSS subscribers. On Facebook, you are measured based on your groups, your friends, and other factors. They also look into business networks, contacts, photo albums on Flickr, and Digg and de.lic.i.ous mentions.

The initial “power 30” list is ranked with this methodology, and Shel mentions that he thinks Neville ought to be on the list. Neville points out that influence and popularity are two very different things, and many may argue that the bloggers making the initial list are merely popular, rather than influential.

Shel argues, on the other hand, that the measure of a blogger’s potential to be influential can be related to how extensive their online footprint reaches. He disagrees with making judgements based on how many friends or connections a person has on a social network—many people only add people they actually know, but this may not mean they are not influential.

The pair also discusses why Flickr would be included in the measurments, as it is actually not necessarily the largest photo-sharing website, with Photobucket considered to hold that honor.

Also discussed:

• Steve Lubetkin reports from BlogPhiladelphia
• Feedback on the Ragan sponsorship
• Joseph Jaffe gets a free iPhone
• Edelman introduces the Social Media Index
• Dan York reports on the Jing Project
• Melcrum's blog reviews
• Dell to offer customer support in Second Life
• Listeners' comments discussion including discussion topic suggestion from Donna Papacosta

Around the PR Podcast Horn (in alphabetical order, if you were wondering):

Inside PR #68 – July 17, 2007 – David Jones and Terry Fallis discuss managing yourself and managing staff at a PR firm, the Fans of Inside PR Facebook group, a recent panel featuring David and Leona Hobbs, and a comment from Bryan Person, as well as their running Inside Proper English segment.

Managing the Gray – July 17, 2007 – CC Chapman discusses “everything from the importance of taking time off from the world and unplugging from the net, to reviewing a couple of books that I thought were worth sharing,” including The Four-Hour Work Week, and Rule the Web.

Marketing Over Coffee – July 18, 2007 – John Wall and Chris Penn join the conversation on how to measure Web 2.0, Debbie Weil’s misstep, 4 horsemen of the Apocalypse, Boston bloggers at No Reservations Premier, Salary.com, and a number of upcoming events.

On the Record – July 12, 2007 – Eric Schwartzman interviews Forbes.com CEO James Spanfeller on a number of topics. They discuss the ways advertisers can use new media to reach out to targeted audiences, and the advantages of tracking and measuring new media over mainstream media. Spanfeller also describes Forbes.com's partnership with Facebook and gives advice to corporations seeking to manage their online reputations, as well as marketing and PR pros looking to get into new media.

PRobecast #25 – July 20, 2007 – Doug Halsam, Rob Capra, and Sandy Kalik discuss the ethics behind contributing to the "Public Relations" entry on Wikipedia. They also discuss a new white paper, "Relating to the Public; the Evolving Role of Public Relations in the Age of Social Media," by Paul Rand and Giovanni Rodriguez, the necessity of a "Social Media Influence" index, and the Facebook vs. LinkedIn debate.

Six Pixels of Separation #60 – July 15, 2007 – Mitch Joel touches on a number of points, including upcoming PR events, such as Podcamp Boston 2. He also conducts an interview with Paull Young on personal branding, and discusses social media overload. The “Six Points” this week offer advice on getting started with microblogging platforms Like Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce.

Ten Golden Rules to Internet Marketing - July 17, 2007 - Jay Berkowitz discusses, among many other points, "What's Hot" in Web 2.0, and "Ten Critical Strategies for Affiliate Marketing." He also interviews Jeremy Palmer of Quit Your Day Job, who quit his day job but made $1 million last year alone.

Social Media SOS (and Other PR Blog Jots)

More Shiny Object Syndrome
BL Ochman
Noting Steve Rubel’s widely-circulated post about social media’s shiny object syndrome (SOS, the tendency to salivate over the latest gadget or new online technology as it is rolled out…the iPhone is an excellent example), BL Ochman discusses the ever growing list of social networks (which she dubs “socnets”). She notes that early adopters are ditching the old (MySpace) for the new and shiny (Facebook). The list of social networks will only continue to expand, so when does the madness stop? How many networks can one person feasibly remain active on? “Many people are heavily invested in creating their LinkedIn networks, and aren’t about to leave those contacts behind in any hurry. Facebook is the “in” socnet of the moment among the digerati, who will most likely abandon it a few weeks from now. It'll be a long time before the monster business networking app makes itself known.”

The Blame Game
Strumpette
In his weekly “gospel” session for Strumpette, Phil Hall warns against attempting to blame the media when suddenly plunged into a public relations disaster. He cites the recent flap over unsafe products and food from China, something the Chinese are attempting to blame on the American press. Phil argues that the media is rarely to blame when a company (or in this case an entire country’s industry) gets bad press, and that attempting to do so reeks of bad spin; he notes the Bush administration’s repeated efforts to blame the media for bad stories coming out of Iraq. “If you are handling the PR for an individual or an entity receiving terrible press, don’t even think about blaming the media. The media is not out to “get” anyone. Instead, it is time to consider an abrupt shift in PR tactics. This could involve acknowledging a problem and apologizing for it (check with legal counsel and risk managers before going ahead on that, of course) or perhaps laying low for a while to avoid overexposure and to let the story deflate (as all stories tend to deflate over time).”

Obama Wins at Social Media
PR Communications
John Cass links to a Journalism.org review of 2008 presidential candidate websites, which highlights the social media aspect the sites have embraced fully in this election cycle. The article notes that candidate sites give voters ample opportunity to engage in two-way conversations with candidates, and start their own grassroots movements for their candidate of choice on the local level. “The study gauged the ability of each candidate's website to allow participation and engage voters. It appears that Barack Obama's website wins out among the candidates. Factors that contributed to this standing include open comments, citizen blogs, and interaction with social networking sites like MySpace.”