Stake Your Claim (and Other PR Blog Jots)

Rush Week
Web Strategy by Jeremiah
Venture Beat is claiming that the “gold rush” for developing apps and finding a space on Facebook is beginning to dwindle, but Jeremiah Owyang couldn’t disagree more. He notes that we haven’t even hit Facebook’s second wave of adoption, and that the next wave will include Fortune 100 companies who are just now coming to realize the influence of the popular networking site. Soon they will be developing their own Facebook presence far greater than the corporate presence already there. I agree with the “second wave” argument; now that the Facebook mania has started to die down, I’m suddenly seeing a new surge of blog posts about the platform, all with a similar theme: what’s next? “Like the first wave of the web, and then the second, Fortune 1000 companies are often slower to adapt, but when they do, they can pour immense resources into development and marketing. We should expect corporations to buy their way into this space, much how they did with Superman in Facebook.”

We're All Word of Mouth Marketers
Conversation Agent
Following an LA Times report on an eMarketer study indicating that 65 million Americans gave word of mouth advice last year, Valeria Maltoni wonders about the nature of word of mouth marketing. Companies are cashing in on customer loyalty, taking advantage of those consumers who are already spreading the word about their products by offering incentives for them to continue doing so. She speculates that they are finding online conversations and reaching out to that audience to further their brand. “Meet the new customer loyalty program -- you give happy customers freebies in the hope they will tell their family and friends. As a company tailors its programs on those whose behavior can be "bought", will it miss the conversation with truly loyal customers who do not need the free gifts? And how are companies going to find those passionate consumers? If you publish, chances are one of the ways is through key word searches.”

Cultivating Your Online Community
Twist Image
Mitch Joel outlines the many ways that readers of any online content (while he uses his own blog and podcast as a guinea pig) can help to grow or promote its online community. The theme is that spreading the word about the community throughout as many social networking channels as possible (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) is the key to growing an audience and gaining influence. “If you are thinking about ways to get more involved or have been grappling with a way to contribute to these online conversations, I’ve created a very selfish list of stuff you can do to get your feet wet, build the community and, at the same time, get your own name “out there” without having to maintain a media channel of your own.”

Comments

[Mitch Joel]

Thanks for highlighting my Blog posting.

Though, after much reflection (ok, 24 hours), I can see why most people probably just see this as link baiting.

Sigh.