Stat Happy (and Other PR Blog Jots)

I Wonder if I'm an Addict or a Regular...
Communication Overtones
Most bloggers keep an eye on their stats (after all, we wouldn’t be doing this if we didn’t hope people would read), but how many bother to do a deep dive and figure out exactly who their readers are? Kami Huyse uses a couple different programs to analyze her readership, with some interesting results. It seems like it would be obvious, but I’d bet many bloggers don’t realize that the majority of their readers are just clicking through from search engines, finding the information they need, then moving on. A small percentage of Kami’s readers, for instance, are “regulars” or “addicts” of her blog. “This quick look at the data shows the importance of looking beyond links for a measure of effectiveness, especially for content creators. It also is a good way to connect with the fact that most people are simply trying to find information as quickly and as efficiently as possible and they don't care about much else.”

Rant/Rave
Web Strategy by Jeremiah
Contrary to its title, Jeremiah posts not a rant, but a very thoughtful piece on the challenges faced by each element of social media. After admitting that the controversial author Andrew Keen, best known for excoriating Web 2.0 in his book The Cult of the Amateur, actually makes some good points, Jeremiah examines each social media tool individually, and dissects what aspects present problems and what could potentially be done to address the issues. “What’s wrong with social networks? There’s concerns about identity, profile information and how that can be shared. While we want to be able to transport our identity and contacts from one system to another, we also yell and scream when the platforms use our own identity to market against us. Let alone the concerns that Steve Ballmer has about different social networks being a fad.”

The Gaffe Track
PR Squared
News of a rather egregious screw-up on the part of a Racepoint employee, outed in Valleywag yesterday as posing as Fake Steve Jobs in defense of a client, has been making the rounds. Todd Defren examines the gaffe and the ensuing mea culpa, but wonders if Racepoint couldn’t have done more to make up for the mistake. He notes that apologizing in the comments at Valleywag was a good start, but an official company statement on their own blog may have gone the extra mile in regaining some credibility. “Short, sweet, painful – but at least an official public acknowledgement.  That way, anyone googling the agency’s name may still see the gaffe on-display at Valleywag, but, they’d also be likely to catch the apology at the Racepoint blog. That’s just PR 101 in the Age of Google, in which our mistakes live online forever.”

Puppies Really Do Fix Everything
What’s Next Blog
I’m for anything that gets kids reading from an early age. In the era of video games and endless other distractions for children, I can’t imagine any kids growing up like I did, with books hidden in the bathroom cabinets so I could sneak in there in the middle of the night to curl up on the floor with a pillow to devour them (moms are not suspicious of bathroom lights being on at 1 a.m., 10-year old bedroom lights, on the other hand….). The fact is, the more we encourage reading, the better writers the children of today will grow up to be—and the world needs great writers. Therefore, I applaud BL Ochman for highlighting this terrific program, where children are matched with therapy dogs in “Read to a Dog” sessions. “Under the program, libraries and schools all over the country schedule reading hours for children and Therapy Dogs. Children and dogs bond together over a shared story. The children's confidence and reading skills grow in a relaxing environment. It's that simple.”