« October 2005 | Main | December 2005 »

November 30, 2005

Technorati's return, and IceRocket's continued ride into orbit

Nick Bradbury is talking about how he has reverted back to using Technorati to search blogs after playing with Google's BlogSearch for awhile. For some time now, I've been recommending Technorati to most people who ask how they can find blogs on a specific topic, with the caveat that "it's not perfect, but it's what we've got" - I still stand by that, because the strange empty search for a popular site or error does pop up here and there, but it's not like it was three or four months back. In Nick's comments, Randy Charles Morin mentions IceRocket, a project that Mark Cuban is behind, and I've gotta say that it's one of the more functional engines for searching - blogs or otherwise - that I use today. Being able to exclude things, subscribe to them, and drill down with one click are definitely things that I use regularly, and would highly recommend you go check it out for those reasons.

Reach the right people

Over the weekend, Scoble was discussing return on investment for the number of people reading RSS as opposed to another medium. No need to rehash most of it, really, but I wanted to echo one sentiment. He mentioned a number of readers on his blog, or of his RSS feed, and how they matter in the long term. I have the same thoughts he does - it doesn't matter if you have 500 reader or 50,000 - obviously 50,000 is "more" readership, but if those 500 persons are just the right 500 decision makers, influencers, or people of importance within the industry or space that you're interested in reaching into, then nothing else matters.

Yesterday, I spoke with a number of newsroom staffers at a major newspaper here in New Jersey, and made a similar statement, and compared it to their newspaper - that the people who are reading most blogs, especially after one has "matured" and been in the market for some time, are the persons who need to be reading it. It's like splitting up the sections of the newspaper - some people read the sports and front page, some people like the obits and classifieds, others might read the whole thing. Think of a blog, especially a niche or topical one, as one of those smaller divisions within the publication.

For the public relations industry, this is great in comparing what we can do in comparison to advertising - as an advertiser, you take a chance that your ad might not make it in front of your target audience, especially if you buy a ROP (run of paper) advertisement. On the other hand, one would hope that the public relations firm working with a client would be dealing with the right reporter who has his or her stories placed in the section of the paper that is most likely to be read by those same interested parties. This works the same way for blogs - if we're all out here sending press releases to 500 blogs that "might" want to hear what a client has to say, then we're wasting our time. Why not spend some more time finding the blogs and influencers that are relevant to those spaces, develop relationships, and work with those writers to find out what they want to hear, and how we can help them get their jobs - as bloggers - done. And yes, that means getting *our* jobs as public relations professionals done, too, but it's important to realize that you're not just placing the seed, you're helping the "economy" of media grow. Plus, if you reach out to just the right blogger, then others will probably link their way, further expanding the reach of your original story.

November 22, 2005

So you want to work in PR?

So, I'm looking to bring on some talent to work as an intern - preferably full time - here at MWW Group on New Media projects that I'm currently handling. I figured this, along with the usual ways of attracting newcomers, would be a welcome change in the recruiting efforts, so here goes. Specifically, I'm looking for someone with knowledge of search engine functionality, blogs, podcasting, wiki, and other technologies. S/he should have general Web development knowledge, presentation/organizational skills, and should be comfortable working on multiple projects at the same time. The formal posting is below the fold. Oh, and this assignment would be to work in our East Rutherford, NJ, offices. I think this internship would be a great opportunity to do something that a candidate really enjoys, all while getting experience of working at a public relations firm.

If this is something of interest to you, please drop us an email with your resume and cover letter to hrjobs (at) mww.com.

Internship - East Rutherford - Blogs and New Media

MWW Group prides itself on the diverse and talented team that has made it what it is today: a strong organization boasting the title of “One of the Nations’ Top Ten Public Relations firms.” From the beginning, the diversity and exceptional talent of our team has distinguished us from the rest of the pack. We foster a culture of excellence. We empower our people with the resources they need to make the most of their collective experience and individual skills. And the results simply outshine the work of everybody else out there.

MWW Group is taking a pro-active approach to finding the best candidates to join our team. We are dedicated to providing our interns with the knowledge they’ll need and experience necessary to succeed in the information technology field.

Requirements are:

  • General understanding/familiarity with blogs, podcasting, and other new media

  • Working knowledge of search functionality, including Google, Yahoo!, IceRocket, Technorati, Feedster, and others

  • Basic Web development abilities, primarily HTML/simple coding. Knowledge of PHP, XHTML, CSS, and basic SQL a plus

  • Strong presentation/organizational skills needed for delivery of research/data to internal staff

Ideal candidate must have strong technical experience and proven problem-solving abilities. Candidate must also possess excellent communication skills.

If you’re interested in pursuing this opportunity, please submit a resume and cover letter to hrjobs (at) mww.com.

November 20, 2005

Are online calendars the next big Web service?

Over the weekend, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's John Cook wrote about a Seattle-based firm, Trumba Corp., that had created an online calendar service, Trumba, that allows for people, organizations, or other groups to share personal or event calendars with friends, family, customers, or the public at large. The software syncs with Outlook, and has a number of functionalities to make everyone you need to keep aware of things able to be just that - aware. But something that struck me was Trumba's VP of marketing saying that he didn't "think MSN or Yahoo! would view us as a competitor -- in fact, I know they wouldn't. I think they see what we are doing as very complementary."

But is that really the case? the Yahoo!s, Googles, and MSNs of the world are always out to keep their existing users on their sites for more and more time per day, and a calendarish function would help to do so. And Yahoo!'s purchase of Upcoming.org last month is just a first step in event and calendar management for the portal. So while Trumba's full functionality might be complementary to what Yahoo! is doing - today - that doesn't mean that next week won't have Trumba fighting against the titan, or perhaps becoming part of it.

November 18, 2005

Blogs as sources, blogs as outreach

Yesterday at Lifehacker, About.com editor Wendy Boswell wrote up an item on "How to Evaluate Sources on the Web," for the people who are looking to use various sites - blogs and others - as reference material for work, school, or otherwise. Additionally, lots of these tips can be just as valuable in the reverse for those working in the public relations industry who are trying to grasp blogs as a media outlet to reach out to and develop a relationship with.

Working in a public relations firm and having a knowledge of the blogosphere leads to lots of questions as to which blogs can be treated as media outlets and which ones should not. (The answer is really that pretty much all of them need to be given a good level of respect, and we'll discuss this further as a big topic) Additionally, people need to know which tools can be used to find blogs relevant to their work and their clients' needs. The neat thing, in a way, with blogs, is that they don't necessarily discriminate. *Most* bloggers don't have a problem linking to others who are in the same space. I've linked to plenty of "competitor" blogs to either add fuel to the fire or share my own experiences and comments, or just as more fodder for our readers, since perhaps both of us bloggers landed the same announcement or press release in the first place. So it's not about pitching 500 blogs to get stories. It's about reaching out to the ones that you have developed a good relationship with and/or believe would be most interested in your client's story, and let it ride from there. People link to that blog, and the story travels. It's like every hit is a whole new "wheel" with many potential spokes. You're also reaching out to people who might never read a particular "big media" outlet, but would do so if a blog they read and respected (which is different from "liked," mind you) commented or linked to the story themselves.

You almost have to think of the blogosphere as a batch of "new" media (hence the name), where most people you know don't have past experience with a particular outlet. You can believe that the New York Times is a good outlet to reach out to, because of past experience - either someone else's, your own, or just public perception as a whole. On the contrary, you don't know that blog xyz is a solid place to reach out to, because you haven't necessarily read it regularly, don't necessarily know anything about the author(s), and might never have searched to see if that blog had already written about what you might want to talk to them about in the first place. So it's not as easy as finding the Google BlogSearch or Technorati tool, searching some blogs in the space, and dropping a press release in the email. Read the blogs in your space regularly, ask others for recommendations, and do a little research.

November 16, 2005

Google Base: The Index of all Indices?

Last night the tech world heralded the true launch of Google Base, the new service that looks to index anything and everything that the search tool hasn't already found, and make it (somewhat) easy to filter through to find what you're looking for. Job postings, classified ads, event listings, even news and stories on various topics will all make their way into Google Base, and users of the service will be able to sort through it all.

This is a huge story on Tech Memeorandum this morning, and with good reason. What I'm actually *happy* to see is that there are a lot of good critical voices out there. I can't say that this won't be a huge seller and be a very helpful tool for a lot of people, companies, and organizations. What I will say is that what Fred Wilson is thinking might be spot on. There are already services that handle certain things that Google Base is doing - from tagging to blogging to photo sharing to job postings - so will putting that all in one bucket with a pretty good search tool make it a worthwhile place for people to spend a good portion of their surftime? Will Google Base end up being open permanently on people's desktops as a repository of all things content, whether that be what kind of toolshed you're looking to have built in your backyard to a link to an editorial you got printed in your local paper? What levels of integration will it have with other Google products? Do sites that already own a lot of usership suffer in the long term, or do they gain traffic and success because of Base's functionality? It already points to CareerBuilder's job listings, which are now "searchable" without ever having to go to CareerBuilder's own site until you want to look more closely. Additionally, what does this mean for people who are utilizing other Google services, like AdWords, that could potentially get overlapped by this? At TechCrunch, one commenter asks why he should be using AdWords for a keyword campaign for a job posting when he could just list the job through Base. Now obviously Base doesn't have the usership that Google prime does, but that could change fairly quickly, especially for those "in the know."

Dan Gillmor, I think, is asking a similar question - or really, making a rhetorical statement, if one can do so - when he says "There's so much more here, potentially, than immediately meets the eye." In my opinion, this is an easy way to get everyone to do for Google what it, and its search algorithms, haven't been able to do alone - sort, filter, and deliver content, maybe even un-indexable content, in a way that makes the rest of the GoogleBot braintrust happy. You think you get a lot of search results now? I'd expect to see a big change there in the very near future, should this catch on.

WSJ Survey: How many blogs do you read per week?

How many blogs per week do you read? The WSJ wants to know.

Go vote!

November 14, 2005

No surprise at iPodder name change

Over the weekend, it was noted that iPodder had changed its name to Juice Receiver. On the podcasters Yahoo! Group that Scoble links to, developer Scott Grayban talks about how Apple was claiming that the use of "iPod" in the software's name was "decieving users that our software was connected to Apple's iPod device." While most of us know the difference, obviously, it's not surprising to me one bit that Apple made this move. Frankly, I'm surprised no one has gone after the fact that "podcasting" as a whole is only deemed that because of the ubiquity of iPod in our lives. If and when the iPod doesn't exist any longer as the portable audio device of choice for many, will the name change from "podcasting" to something else? Doubt it - but what we're seeing here is how something is named and remembered as lore after some time - leading to lots of "why is that called that, anyway?" questions years down the road.

Google's new traffic monitoring tool

If there was ever an item in my inbox in the morning that was sure to get posted, it was this one. It appears that Google has gone ga-ga over statistics on the Web, and is now offering Google Analytics. Outside of the fact that it integrates with the AdWords product, it appears to be a significant site traffic metric service that will attract some users. And based on the time it is taking to respond to my signup this morning, Site Meter might get a run for its money.

November 11, 2005

iTunes happiness for the day

Customer service isn't necessarily a topic or focus of this blog, but I've got to share an experience I recently had that should give DHL a run for its money as far as "customer service is back" as a tagline. In the last few weeks, I've had my laptop crash and have a completely unrecoverable hard drive, one that included a few thousand mp3s, a good portion of which were purchased through the iTunes Music Store. A short time later, my "backup" at the moment, my awesome 3rd gen iPod, was removed from my possession by an unknown person, who got all my cords but managed to leave the headphones, strangely enough. Figuring that my ITMS songs were lost, I was kind of bummed out, knowing that iTunes specifically tells you to back up your music, something that I hadn't done on any other device or media.

Needless to say, I figured I would give it a whirl, and contaced the iTunes Customer Service team last night. They state that it'll be up to 72 hours for a response, but they got back to me in less than two hours. Not only did the rep write the response (no form letter here) including details about my situation, they were happy to help me out by adding the songs to my purchased queue, with only one caveat - that I wouldn't be able to do this again. Obviously I don't think I'll need to, but it was great to see that calling in a big favor like this was something that I didn't get a negative response to. Now I wouldn't go around exploiting this or anything, but I would keep it in mind that, at least in my product and service experience, many of the folks at Apple / iTunes are fully aware of the value of a customer.

November 09, 2005

Google Publication Ads - Beta

Obviously, Google is the powerhouse, 500lb gorilla in the search space, at least a 300lb gorilla in the textad space, and working wonders with online maps, free email, and a variety of other areas. But all the jokes about world domination have typically ended at your keyboard, mouse, and monitor - until now. Over at AdJab, Chris Thilk and I have been doing a little bit of searching into what's up Google's sleeve, and as it turns out, they're well beyond just a bunch of html and php on your computer or handheld screen - they're in the newspaper ad business. If the launch of (yes, it's a Beta, but so is Gmail) Google Publication Ads isn't a huge thing in today's world, then nothing is. More details as they become evident.

Letting others take your tools and concepts to another level

As further proof (did we need any?) that at least one person has thought of just about every good idea, and many have executed those ideas in some fashion, typically on the Internet, I'm happy to link to FlightStats. [Found this morning via Heath Row's post on the Fast Company blog] FlightStats keeps track of all things flight-time related, and has created a number of ways in which the data can be spun, published, and utilized on a personal and business level. And heck, anytime you go to a firm's site and see that they are publicly informing about their API, that's a big deal - because just as "the people" can partake in citizen journalism and news and information is flowing in multiple directions, "the people" are also creators of tools, software, and services for the rest of us to jump in on.

November 08, 2005

But would you pay for it? [Survey]

One of the biggest reasons that many Internet companies / services have been so successful is that they are free to use. Well, free as in there is no actual money changing hands in order to use them, even though advertisements may be displayed on screen, names could be added to a mailing list, etc. So it begs us to ask the question: Would a successful service today be just as successful if you had to pay to use it? If you had to pay, or had the option to pay, let's say, should you get an ad-free experience, or one with different features, perhaps those that take more hoops to jump through as a "free" user? What about a prime example of Flickr? It offers "pro" accounts that give an ad-free account, one that offers more uploading space, yada yada yada, all for just under $25/year. There are a ton of people who think it's worthwhile, probably most of which a) believe in the service and b) want to show their wares off more and more - so they've dropped $24.95 for the year, and continue to use Flickr more or less as they had previously done so, all while the rest of us who aren't "pro" users go about using it just as we do.

This leads us to the main question here, as I've somewhat set you up by asking about Flickr. Would you pay to use Google? Over at Signal vs. Noise, Jason Fried wants to know if you would pay $5 a month to use it. I'd wonder about the same thing.

Therefore, I've set up a really quick survey, which can be taken here. Obviously this isn't going to be super scientific, and I'm not asking for demographic information, just basic stuff about paid services and preferences. I'd really appreciate your feedback, and will publish the results within the next few days, or as soon as a reasonable sample comes in.

[via Fimoculous]

Yahoo! Events Browser + Upcoming = w00t

About a month ago, Yahoo! quietly purchased event / calendar / social site Upcoming.org, yet another move showing that smart products and services are rewarded in the end. But it's not the end for Upcoming - now, it has the opportunity to be shown to Yahoo! users who might have never stumbled upon it, and hopefully for Upcoming users to find some value in the Yahoo! community that they might have not before.

Most importantly though, will be how Yahoo! truly makes its services - Upcoming included - shine in the long term. J-prof Doug Fisher wrote this morning about the demo version of Yahoo!'s Events Browser, created with various Yahoo! APIs, asking "Who would want to go to the typical clunky newspaper community calendar listings after seeing this...?" I would follow that up by asking when we're going to get to see this meshed with the volume of events housed on Upcoming's site? Sure, those listings already have links to Google Maps and Yahoo! Maps, but on the other hand you'd be able to go to Yahoo! Maps and find out what kind of events are going on in a particular area. This would work wonders in planning a weekend getaway to a neighboring state, how to kill time during nights when you're on a business trip in an unfamiliar place, and much more.

November 04, 2005

Don't miss the point on reaching out to bloggers

This morning, Microsoft's Robert Scoble wrote about people who've asked him about how to get him to talk about their announcements and press releases - the answer is simple, and one he's mentioned before - to get "his wife" to write about it. Let's look at this another way. In previous discussions on the same topic, many well-recognized bloggers have come out and said that they typically write about something because they have seen it on other blogs, with the "s" in blogs being very important. So as much as many a person believes that the "A-List" of bloggers hold all the cards, those people are missing the point. In some ways, this is reverse long-tail, the statistical concept that shows that those outside of the initial adoption stage of pretty much anything sometimes outnumber those who were up front. Scoble writes about stuff that other people are already writing about, people he trusts or at least reads regularly, even though he might be considered an "early adopter" on many topics.

It's something that presumably anyone who is trying to market or pitch bloggers misses - something that isn't necessarily the same with "big media." Obviously every PR or marketing pro has "top targets" for sites, blogs, or media outlets they want to pick up their story, something that a client would see as a big hit. Sometimes, getting that big hit isn't as difficult (or as easy) as just reaching out to that primary target, and that success can be had by leveraging existing relationships with bloggers on any particular level, not just the ones that someone said are "the top." This is also a perfect example of knowing your audience, or hopeful blog pickup. The untrained eye who just heard about Scoble having some influence might have whizzed off a press release or even finely crafted email about a product or service that could be legitimately of interest to him, but since they hadn't read his site over the long haul, or even done a cursory search for "press releases" or "PR" on the site's search function, they wouldn't have known about any of this and potentially missed out on him ultimately picking up the story.

November 03, 2005

Introducing blogs, RSS

One of the first questions that I'm asked by someone I'm giving a short and sweet intro or lesson on blogs is: Where do I find them? To me, it's kind of a funny question, but that's just because I'm "in" the community and see them as being everywhere - probably in the same way that people in advertising notice the eyes on characters on cereal boxes looking downwards when walking down that aisle of the grocery store - so it's not a silly question at all. Sure, there are a ton of them, but how would you explain the easiest way to find blogs to someone? Would you show them Technorati? Would you send them to Blogger.com? There are probably a million answers, and I have a few tips I usually pass along on my own. Howabout you, what do you folks do to recommend a starting point for people interested in blogs?

Similarly, many of us who read a lot of blogs know how to use a lot of the tools, but sometimes get stuck reading within the same space of the blogs we read and the blogs that our favorite bloggers read. How to get through all the clutter? Those of us with a ton of RSS feeds will tell you that just covering those on a daily basis is a task in itself, so even though there's a need to find more, it's not always so simple. So when a neat feature appears within something we're already using (i.e. Bloglines, My Yahoo!, or an RSS reader), it makes it that much better and time-saving. That's why I'm psyched about the new feature that Nick Bradbury is saying will be included in the next version of FeedDemon - the ability to find RSS feeds for certain topics. Obviously it's a super simple way for those "new to RSS" as Nick calls them, but should also serve a solid purpose for those of us who might be a bit time constrained given all the things we're already reading.

Just because they're 12-17 now...

One of the hardest things to convey to those who are skeptical of the digital world is the number of people who are interacting and using these tools on a regular basis. And with various statistics showing low numbers - of overall Internet users - who read or write blogs stalling efforts by companies and other organizations to jump on board, it's important to really get to the nitty gritty with these numbers. Dave Winer links this morning to a NYTimes item this morning from Tom Zeller, Jr. about what those stats look like when sliced down to those between 12 and 17 years old who are "active online." Zeller cites a Pew Internet and American Life Project survey that shows that within that demographic, a whopping 57% of individuals "create digital content."

November 02, 2005

New media = New economy = New PR

On Tuesday, Mike Manuel wrote a strong piece about DIY PR, or do-it-yourself public relations. He's on point to show that while tools such as blogs, RSS feeds, podcasting and others exist and are fairly easy (for some) to roll out without outside assistance, that doesn't mean that public relations firms as we know them are going to vanish. If anything, the idea that agencies should be "adapting and exploring new ways to bring new value to businesses" is what we should all bet on, and not in the fashion that you throw some "extra" chips on black at the roulette wheel before walking out of the casino. If there was ever a sure thing, in my eyes, it was that agencies must get with the program when it comes to the tools of the trade, not so much to fend off the do-it-yourselfers and leaders of the new school, but to continue to act as the experts in their trade. Public relations is a lot about feet on the street, and knowing which tips, tools, and efforts work - and which don't.

Now obviously I am employed by an agency that is working in this space, and utilizing new media expertise in order to get our clients what they really need - not just publicity, press mentions, blog postings, and buzz - but end results, real customers, testimonials, and a return on their investment. That ROI might not just be measured with dollars in the coffers, though. Perhaps it's signups to a mailing list, site traffic increases, positive search engine results, whatever - what's important is that we're getting with the program. So obviously you can take me as an unbiased commenter on the subject - all well and good - but the objective here is to assist our clients in getting the word out, through whatever tools are applicable to their business. Not everyone needs a blog - or should have one. Not ever company should be podcasting. Perhaps a wiki isn't right for one client. But no matter what, there is a level of expertise that exists in the blogging space, podcasting space, wiki space, whatever. That's what part of our role will be going forward - knowing what to use, when, and for which customer. We all know that you can throw together a blog on Blogger in less than five minutes - but can you make it into an effective communication tool that builds your business, places you in the community you need to be near, and keeps people interested? I can't say that everyone would know how to do that, after opening up their "DIY Marketing Toolbox."

If there was ever a reason that people wanted to know why individuals like Mike Manuel, Steve Rubel, Jeremy Pepper and myself were working in the public relations industry, it would be for what I just mentioned above. None of us are magicians, as our transparency will clearly show - but these people exist as proof positive that not only are PR firms getting with the program (yes, I know I used the phrase three times now), but that they are committed to growing new and existing business through what new media has to offer.

But will they criticize critics?

Jason Kottke informs about a panel he's taking part in tomorrow (November 3) in NYC entitled "Everyone's a Critic, Or Are They," along with a few other folks that are sure to add some color to the discussion. They'll be taking a look at how our vastly distributed "media" of today all has a megaphone and a stepstool, and what that means in the long term.

Bringing *nix one step closer to the masses

Computerworld's Eric Lai wrote earlier this week about a third company looking to help Windows-networked firms operated Linux-based servers through a common platform, perhaps taking the fear out of *nix boxes within Windows shops. This software package, Likewise, joins services from Centrify and Vintela that have similar functionality.

In my estimation, this will bring a lot more companies closer to handling large-scale hosting of their own Websites to their own server farms, especially as bandwidth continues to cheapen on the whole. While you can obviously host a site on a Windows-based servers, a significant portion of the hosted world is done on *nix servers, and a lot of site managers have expertise working on those platforms.

Rating Wikipedia

Wondering about the value of Wikipedia? Rebecca Blood links to an item in The Guardian where some experts take a look at topics covered in their respective fields, and assign a score to the items they reviewed.

It's a small world...

I'm guessing there are people who look at today's technologies and collaborative sites such as Flickr and wonder what the point of it all is, not realizing that there truly is a "conversation" going on there. Those of us who are ingrained in blogs, forums, and the land of wiki see what's happening, and work hard to convey this to those who are interested in the subject, but what always works, in my eyes, is a prime example.

Oskar van Rijswijk posted one such example for us on Sunday, pointing to a photo of a car accident that he posted on the Flickr website, which was commented on shortly afterward by someone linking to photos of someone who was in the original photographs, taking pictures of the scene itself. It's not such a large world after all.

Bloglines on the move

The fine folks at Bloglines have added a new feature to the great free service they offer - a "scaled down" mobile version, so you can now check all the blogs and news sources you wish to keep up with, while on the move, all without a full size Web browser. Sure, most people who have mobile devices have decent sized screens and the right software to surf the Web at will, but now, it's even easier to do sowhile continuing to use your existing Bloglines subscriptions.

Yet again, it's about choices for your customers.