Open The Dialogue

LOTD: 11/26/08

John Ratcliffe-Lee — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 13:45:13 +0000

Joel Johnson calls out some excessive, “viral” commenting on Boing Boing Gadgets.
Brian Solis unveils @MicroPR, using Twitter as a tool to connect the media community. Very similar to how HARO is using e-mail.
Sling puts their hat in the online video ring and launches a video portal, going up against Joost & Hulu. Early returns say that this is the real deal: good content, design and most importantly - a hardware tie-in, letting you stream from any Sling box you own (giving access to Live TV and premium saved content).
Amazon.com is trying to break the mold a bit this holiday season: user-generated PR. They’ve assembled a team of customers to actively write reviews for hot gifts being pitched to reporters. Keep a close eye on this one, surely more to come.
Have some downtime this weekend? Rex’s list-mecca for 2008.

We’ll take a bit of a break for the Thanksgiving holiday and be back at it in December! Lots of great stuff coming down the pipe. Stay tuned!

LOTD: 11/25/08

John Ratcliffe-Lee — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 19:29:56 +0000

Both via John Gruber:
- Values of n is shutting down, leaving Stikkit and I Want Sandy users in the dust on 12/8. Both properties, intellectually, have been aquired by Twitter but there aren’t any plans to integreate just yet. Hmm…money might be behind the recent spurn of Facebook but could this be Twitter shuffling the deck a bit?
- It Died: ”A compendium of what services and companies are no longer available for our Internet pleasure and use.”
Still on the e-mail kick a bit, Racked has a great feature that summarizes most of the major daily missives into an easy-to-digest post: Email Scan.
Even though this is a paid spot, Microsoft hired the team at Common Craft to explain lifestreaming. Great high level benefits explanation (via mark).

LOTD: 11/24/08

John Ratcliffe-Lee — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 12:25:43 +0000

Mike Arauz reminds us that e-mail is still king. Great points about the quality of attention vs. other popular tools (Twitter, Facebook, etc.), letting the actual content take center stage (via amit).
Rafe keeps it fresh with a new pro PR tip every day. Ranges from the blatantly obvious to the stuff you shouldn’t forget. Great for anyone in the PR industry (via veronica).
In NYC? Check out Creative Mornings! I’ll be attending the 12/12 session (JRL).
Flashy tracking.
EveryBlock pumps out another highly functional redesign. We’re bullish on hyper-local here at OTD (via will).

LOTD: 11/21/08

John Ratcliffe-Lee — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 00:22:29 +0000

Hot off the presses and certainly deserving of its own call-out is a great article that will be appearing in The Screens Issue of this weekend’s New York Times Magainze.

In Multiscreen Mad Men, Jack Hitt moderates a discussion about digital media and the direction it’s heading:

Palmer: There’s a difference. A Super Bowl ad is broadcast and everybody sees the same ad, and it comes from a single source. And so you may have a preference as to whether you liked this ad in comparison to this other ad in the block of ads that you just saw. But when you feel like you’ve discovered something on the Internet, it’s a different relationship to the brand. Say I was one of the first thousand people who saw that Cadbury gorilla ad — where he drums along to Phil Collins — and I send that out to all my friends. There’s a pride that I have in having discovered that, a connection that you actually can’t get with broadcast advertising.

Some great stuff in the issue all-around, eagerly awaiting your Saturday morning coffee.

Brands in 2009

John Ratcliffe-Lee — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 20:16:48 +0000

Looking ahead, as many are laying out plans and budgets for the year in front of us, I thought it’d be important to revisit two major realities of today’s digital world: the big-picture role brands play online and the truth behind engagement, participation, etc.

One “old” post I constantly find myself going back to is David Armano talking about brands being facilitators online instead of, traditionally, broadcasters. Using this thinking often during brainstorms and client meetings, the point here is that as the communication landscape changes - so must a brand and how they react, participate and work with their audiences. From David’s post:

This means that like any good facilitator, they get off center stage, move over to the side and let others do the talking. But just like any good facilitator, the brands who succeed in this direction need to master it as an both and art and science. Good facilitators know how to actively listen, how to create environments which stimulate productive conversations and interactions and most importantly they add incredible value even though they may come across as the least vocal in the group.

Another truth to be mindful of in 2009 is the reality behind participation. As marketers, we like to think every audience we try to reach is 100% engaged and digitally active. Sadly, as Jake points out, that isn’t so.

Most of today’s web community falls into those three buckets. The large majority being an audience who never really engages themslves, taking content and moving on. A small percentage of people actually mold and adust what is out there - but only what is out there, nothing comes from them directly. Finally, the 1% who actually create and drive activity.

A great stat that Jake provides to back-up the 90-9-1 principle:

Just 0.16% of all visitors to YouTube upload videos to it, and 0.2% of visitors to Flickr upload photos.

Even if you’re a “creator,” think about how many photos or videos you upload in a day vs. the amount you passively digest from links found online or passed on from friends. I’d bet that ratio supports the principle behind Jake’s great single-serving site.

In 2009, we should focus on changing both of these realities for the better. The opportunity is there to level the playing field and for brands to become better transparent, active participants with not just the media but their customers and the digital world as a whole. In doing so, hopefully we’ll see the facilitator model be more popular and the 90-9-1 percentages begin to adjust themselves, moving closer and closer to the 100% “participation nirvana” we’re all seeking.

What do you want to see happen in 2009 for the world of PR, interactive marketing, etc.?

Onward and Upward!

DialogueMedia — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 16:00:02 +0000

I want to take a moment here on OTD to make some brief announcements as well as give you a peek into what the future will bring us. My name is Saurabh Wahi and I’m a senior vice president at MWW Group and, now, our DialogueMedia practice. I’ve been with the firm for over seven years, and during the last three, I’ve immersed myself in digital media strategy behind the scenes as I sought to bridge the gap between traditional public relations and the digital media world for our clients.

It’s been a great ride so far. I’ve learned a tremendous amount, made my fair share of mistakes, created campaigns I’m very proud of and most importantly, made some great friends along the way. And although my erstwhile partners in crime, Tom Biro and Chris Thilk, have moved on to pursue their own individual passions (movies for Chris, rock stars for Tom) – I will definitely treasure the great friendship and partnership I enjoyed with each of them and the amazing work we’ve collaborated on for our clients.

Change, as they say, is the only constant and our industry has seen more of it in the last 24 months than perhaps several years preceding. DialogueMedia has evolved successfully, maintaining its lead through every wave of new technologies and trends and continuing to deliver great results for our clients.

The next evolution of DialogueMedia is now underway. Tectonic shifts in the media landscape have changed consumption habits. New ideas and technologies have been introduced and the role of public relations has continued to evolve. And all this has got us really, really excited here at DialogueMedia. Without giving away too much about our near term plans, I will say that you can expect some exciting new thinking and perspectives, some new faces in addition to the familiar ones, and a whole lot of innovation.

Oh and, after all this talk of change, let me just finish off by mentioning some things that won’t change. I remain incredibly passionate about my photography and Nikon remains one of my all-time favorite brands to work on. So that won’t change. I’ll continue to lead that business while replacing my group management responsibilities with strategic initiatives for DialogueMedia.

The team and I will be ramping posts up again in the next few days and you can look forward to hearing a range of different perspectives from folks at MWW Group and DialogueMedia.

We look forward to a dialogue with you.

Cruising like a Sandcrawler

LOTD: 7/15/08

DialogueMedia — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 02:51:25 +0000

Both Jesper Andersen and Farhad Manjoo - the latter in his first column at Slate - engage in the Internet’s favorite pasttime, the questioning of the accuracy of Chris Anderson’s “Long Tail” notion.
Jeremiah Owyang rightly points out that not every company needs to be part of the online conversation. It all depends on the audience the company is trying to reach and the stories they have to tell, but that research needs to be at the forefront of any tactics.
An interesting diagram on how social media is beginning to invade the enterprise infrastructure.
David Griner has one of the most common-sensical and persuasive posts on the Internet’s second favorite recent activity, talking about how the conversation has shifted off of blogs and onto things like Twitter and FriendFeed.
The issue of who owns a company blog when the sole writer leaves is something I have some interest in, and I admire Gia’s take on it.
PaidContent gets bought by The Guardian and MenuPages gets bought by New York Magazine.

LOTD: 7/9/08

DialogueMedia — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 20:14:56 +0000

Chris O’Brien at PBS’ Idea Lab blog takes us through the process of inventing a Second Life presence from scratch, including acclimating an entire team to just what being in a virtual world means to begin with.
If you’re a talented photographer looking to get some additional exposure, that could come in the form of a deal between the site and Getty Images that will allow the latter to check out the photos on Flickr for potential licensing.
Google has launched Lively, a new virtual world/visual chat engine that…well…I’m not quite sure. It’s got some cool potential, especially in the ways it can be integrated with the rest of the Web. Adverlab has a good write-up of how it works and what it could all mean.
The shortening of URLs - something that’s useful when you’re doing things like pasting links on Twitter - may not seem like it needs a lot of functionality, but I’ll admit that what Bit.ly can do appears to be pretty darn useful in terms of tracking histories and such.
And speaking of Twitter, everyone’s favorite digital media writer/PR commentator Brian Morrisey gets interviewed on The Bad Pitch Blog.
Fred Wilson questions the actual value of some commonly cited new media stats.
An interesting case study-let of how Toyota has used social media for a campaign for the Scion. [via JD]
Now that Google is extending its advertising reach to offline media it’s only natural they would launch a Traditional Media Blog, no?

Make sure you buy your FastPass early

DialogueMedia — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 19:39:58 +0000

Josh has announced the dates for this year’s BlogOrlando: September 25th - 27th. Registration will be happening soon. Having attended last year’s version this is one I’m looking forward to quite a bit, especially since this year Josh says there’s some even cooler stuff going on down there. Reconnecting with the people I saw last year and meeting new folks is also going to be the big plus from this. More details, as he says, to come.

LOTD: 7/2/08

DialogueMedia — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 19:49:44 +0000

Both Greg Verdino and David Berkowitz are quoted in this MediaPost article on how social media marketing efforts have the potential to significantly drive down media spending. Since these efforts cost less than traditional media programs - and we’re including everything from straight ad buys to outreach here - and they begin to move to the front of the line for available dollars, it’s completely likely overall spending numbers will come down quite a bit.
Another story about how search marketing is doing what PR isn’t and how that’s going to wind up destroying PR. Let’s make this clear: Search marketing is, in large part, all about the same reputation management that PR is. If you’re doing PR and you’re not at least thinking about how search, either paid or organic, is impacting your company/client you should probably start doing that….now.
Oh, and it’s a problem in advertising shops as well, just so we don’t feel like it’s all on us.
The Chicago Tribune writes about microblogging and manages to use the words “detritus” and “mundane” within the first 25 words or so, meaning I once again win the pool.
Businessweek is absolutely right - the growth of content recognition software by media companies to find where they’re stuff is appearing online is only going to continue. And that growth is only going to mean more throwdowns between the companies and bloggers who want to grab a few quotes to make or reinforce a point. (And Shel Holtz is right - if the AP is going to make such a stink about how many words are being used elsewhere, it’s only intellectually consistent that they should have the same level of problems with their customers arbitrarily altering text.)
Charlene Li is leaving Forrester, prompting more than a few “wow”’s on Twitter.
Just because I thought it was funny I created a Social Media Yellow Card for people to use in meetings, prompting David Griner of AdFreak to create his own Social Media Red Card. Yeah, we’re insane.

Open The Dialogue

LOTD: 11/26/08

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