Google Wave - The Future of Online Communications Comes Together

From the desk of AWC member, Kendra Bonnett

Is Blogging Dead? How Blogging and Social Media Work Together.

I ask this question rather tongue in cheek because although I see articles proclaiming the death of blogging and how Twitter is the new blogging platform I know this not to be the case. Clearly a lot of people don't fully understand the division of labor between blogs and social media.

I decided to address the issue as I see it: With blogging as the author's central online platform for building a base of followers (readers) and social networking tools/sites as the means to get out to where the prospective readers might be milling about.

I posted the first article in two parts...because I blog on two sites--Story Circle Network's Telling HerStories and Women's Memoirs. I've received some good responses...enough to encourage me to keep writing about this topic. I'd like to share both links with my friends here on Linkedin. I'm listing the links in the order that I recommend you read the pieces. And as always, your insightful feedback is greatly appreciated.

Part 1: http://storycircle.typepad.com/scn/2009/08/blogging-is-deadin-case-you-hadnt-heard.html

Part 2: http://womensmemoirs.com/2009/08/is-blogging-dead-and-should-i-care/

Interesting Article from PR-Squared

It Doesn’t Matter if the Client is Ready for Social Media
Posted: 24 Jul 2009 04:30 PM PDT

Some of the most persistent reasons agency PR pros give for lagging on their Social Media knowledge?

“My clients aren’t ready for it … It’s not as big a deal in B2B … etc.”

Newsflash: it does not matter if your clients aren’t ready. The mainstream media are ready.

Forget (for a minute, if you must) the fact that the rest of the world is becoming increasingly engaged in Social Media. The fact is that the Mainstream Media are getting religion.

Yesterday one of my colleagues noted, “I was accustomed to ‘stalking’ the same set of reporters for years. I’d get press clips, sure, but the relationship was very controlled. Since I became friends with these guys on Facebook, we’ve become actual friends. When they visit SF, they ask me for hotel and restaurant recommendations, etc. And, I get a LOT more coverage for my clients.”

Please note that this team member’s clients are among the most techie, B2B, curmudgeonly folks on SHIFT’s roster. The use of Social Media to influence end-users on these clients’ behalf is relatively minor (if not non-existent). However, the use of Social Media to influence the beat reporters in their industries is now a priceless part of our approach.

Imagine if this SHIFTer had personally ignored “the whole Social Media thing” because her clients didn’t care about Twitter and Facebook and bloggers?

This blogger is moving to a new site...

Someday I'll put everything together on one site, but for now, please see my new blog at www.refinedharmony.tumblr.com.

It's Not Just a Live Journal

The old definition for a "blog" is simply a live journal. This is no longer the case. I bring this up because of the diversity of uses that blogs have developed and the substandard reputation that they still seem to hold among many circles.

Blogs are still used as live journals to some, but today they are used as domain sites to most bloggers. As I've said before, the new communications model consists of consumers telling marketers what they want to buy and what they care about. This is why blogs have emerged as great tools within every industry. Blogs not only reach consumers on a personal level by giving them a forum to discuss their issues known as the "comment" field. Blogs help marketers to personify their companies by creating a place for businesses as well as individuals to post live updates about their mission.

Blogs are simply a place to update the world on happenings as they occur. The most advanced blogging site that I have found is one that is still in the making, but develops applications and uses based on the needs of its users. Www.Tumblr.com allows its users to create the look and layout that they want whether they understand HTML/ CSS or not. Another great fact about tumblr is that it does not require users to promote the site, only to use it as a place to market themselves. One of the most creative tumblr sites is www.riecespieces.com.

RiecesPieces.com is written by a music producer who continues to update his readers on his career on a moment to moment basis whether the news is positive or negative. He understands that the new public is a public that logs on to Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox in search of the truth and is tired of spam and exaggerations regarding all topics that they enter into their search engines.

A File Transfering Phone App

This latest technology will help to make the new generation of all new media all the time a reality. Even those that can't stand the restraints of cell phones and are still only using the internet to do major projects with their partners and team, will be pleased to hear about the Nimbuzz technology.

Nimbuzz is a phone application that allows its users to see who´s online and where, participate in conference calls in chat rooms, transfer files such as photos/music/video and make their own ringtones. It also allows for international calling and voicemail. The best part, Nimbuzz is FREE!

To find out more of what real Nimbuzz users are saying, CLICK HERE.

Desperate Housewives: The New Chic

According to Hernandez and Minor (2003), "Advergaming is the use of electronic games to deliver advertising messages in order to build brand awareness, to offer product information, and to provide a means to compare similar products, for the purpose of developing lasting exchange relationships with the customers."

The beauty of advergaming is that most games are made with a demographic already in mind. Meaning, if companies know that Grand Theft Auto is meant for young boys into destruction and cars, they know to sell space to race car and alcohol companies. And since most of the unique gaming ideas are now taken, console companies now have the opportunity to partner with television networks to create games that will have a guaranteed audience based on known ratings. As we all know, the new millennium is all about collaboration!

The Desperate Housewives game is one example of a collaboration between ABC and PC CD.



What makes this game effective is not only its guaranteed audience based on video game savvy television show fans, but also the interactivity that it introduces. What seems to be just another SIMS-like game, gives you adventure and a soap opera all at the same time. This game is based on a new housewife that moves into the neighborhood and starts her dramatic life by interacting with the well-known Desperate Housewives characters, choosing her house and wardrobe, and going on adventures. The game player is the new chic! The game lures bored video game fans into the show by giving them a fantasy life filled with drama and adventure. It keeps the Desperate Housewives fans hooked by allowing them to become part of the show and choose their fantasy life from the beginning while they answer trivia about their favorite show.

Hilarious Twitter Mockumentaries

Repost: 10 Facts About Micro-Blogging

The following facts about micro-blogging come from Mindy McAdams, her site, Teaching Online Journalism, is dedicated to student communicators. The article can be found at http://mindymcadams.com/tojou/2008/twitter-mumbai-and-10-facts-about-journalism-now/.

10 Facts About Micro-Blogging

1.Breaking news will be online before it’s on television.

2.Breaking news — especially disasters and attacks in the middle of a city — will be covered first by non-journalists.

3.The non-journalists will continue providing new information even after the trained journalists arrive on the scene.

4.Cell phones will be the primary reporting tool at first, and possibly for hours.

5.Cell phones that can use a wireless Internet connection in addition to a cellular phone network are a more versatile reporting tool than a phone alone.

6.Still photos, transmitted by citizens on the ground, will tell more than most videos.

7.The right video will get so many views, your servers might crash (I’m not aware of this happening with any videos from Mumbai).

8.Live streaming video becomes a user magnet during a crisis. (CNN.com Live: 1.4 million views as of 11:30 a.m. EST today, according to Beet.tv.)

9.Your print reporters need to know how to dictate over the phone. If they can get a line to the newsroom, it might be necessary.

10.Your Web team must be prepared for this kind of crisis reporting.

FTC Attempts to Regulate Social Media!

A recent article by Tameka Kee of Forbes.com, states that the Federal Trade Commission is now "moving to regulate social-media advertising." Sounds necessary right? If it were only that simple...

The FTC is not only working on a plan of action to regulate social-media advertising, it already has some rather harsh ideas of what this plan should be. For example, companies would get sued for stating that a product is good, even if it's not and bloggers would no long be able to make money off of pay-per-review posts.

The most appalling of these proposed guidelines comes from this report: "Word-of-mouth marketing is not exempt from the laws of truthful advertising," Richard Cleland, the assistant director for the FTC’s division of advertising practices.

The point of the new model of communications is that "consumers" now have an open forum to express their opinions and ideas. They are now able tell advertisers and companies what they do and do not like about products and images. Although I do agree that there should be regulations on online advertising, it is archaic and oppressive to propose the guidelines discussed in this Forbes.com article.

Burger King's YouTube Campaign

"Google/YouTube created Burger King video campaign with Family Guy creator; 20M views; 65K comments. BK very happy with unique campaign," said author Newt Barrett on his March 23 tweet. This gave credibility to the Burger King advertising team to those of us young adults who absolutely love family guy!

Once I began my research on this unique campaign, I came across articles showing many Burger King collaborations. The company is taking full advantage of new media resources and its demographic. Another example of a Burger King collaboration can be found in the article "Burger King, Diddy partner for ad campaign, YouTube promotion" by Nation's Restaurant News on the blog "BNet."

This article discusses the partnership between Sean "Diddy" Combs (aka Puff Daddy) and Burger King to create a YouTube channel dedicated to Diddy's fans. In many music circles Diddy is known as the "King of Hip-Hop." Therefore, when he stated, "When two kings get together you know they gotta do it big," music fans everywhere could relate. (This original Diddy Burger King video can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLcPIolG_8E.) Burger King expects the partnership to be a "long-term relationship that is wide open in terms of Diddy's contributions as a Burger King brand ambassador," said Russ Klein, president of global marketing, strategy and innovation.

It seems that Burger King's advertising team has done an excellent job in reaching out to its American demographic of young adults and most critics would agree.

Then again, the advertising team created a facebook application to coincide with this campaign that in the opinion of John Boyle, was ineffective due to its' negativity. Although the Family Guy's basis on humor is negative, Boyle believes that not only does it effect friendships, which is the point of social networking, it goes against basic rules of the trade. "Why on earth would you create a viral marketing campaign centered on negativity? It’s the old comedy rule: Surprise the audience and stay positive. It’s always funnier," said Boyle.

Although Boyle is right that the surprise element of positivity is a great tactic, I do not agree that it is always funnier. If you watch the majority of routines done on Comedy Central and by up-and-coming comics, they are based on making fun of different areas of diversity. The most well-known comics and comical campaigns are based on negative comments that make negative stereotypes sound ignorant.

Burger King has done a great job in turning around its advertising tactics and its use of new media. Burger Kings YouTube channel can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/bk.

A Generation of the Mobile-Based Perception

In correlation with the idea of micro-blogging, the debate on whether or not President Obama should be allowed to keep his BlackBerry in the white house has everything to do with the new generation of media and communications. Eight years ago, there was no issue. “George W. Bush gave up personal e-mail upon entering office, fearing he would create a public record with every touch of the ‘send’ button and Bill Clinton has been reported to avoid e-mail even today,” said Christi Parsons and Jim Puzzanghera in their Chicago Times article “In Barack Obama's White House, his BlackBerry is VIP.”

“With all due respect to Presidents Clinton and Bush, they didn't really grow up with these mobile devices,” Roger Entner, a telecommunications analyst with the Nielsen Company, said of portable e-mail devices.” “President Obama is like so many others of his generation—this is the device that helps determine how he perceives the rest of the world.” (Chicago Times) Due to his persistence, Obama’s security team has been working hard to determine the guidelines of his personal BlackBerry’s security measures. As discussed in earlier postings, the new communications model of credibility led by the ‘Average Joe’ is why Obama won his election. If he were to put himself in a Washington Bubble now, it would discredit his popularity. “The device could preserve for Obama some of what his job automatically precludes: direct contact with the workday world. Even if he isn't scanning his own groceries or buying his own milk—former President George H.W. Bush was portrayed as out of touch with those markers of American life—he may be in casual contact with friends who are. And he'll be doing so as do millions of other Americans, by way of thumbs on a keypad.” (Chicago Times)

When Robert Gibbs, White House press secretary, announced the issue to reporters they immediately sent their reports throughout Washington via their PDAs. This proves the general usage of mobile devices whether personal or work-related. In fact, Gibbs said he receives emails from the president that range from business matters to "Why did my football team perform so miserably?"

10 Facts About Micro-Blogging

1.Breaking news will be online before it’s on television.

2.Breaking news — especially disasters and attacks in the middle of a city — will be covered first by non-journalists.

3.The non-journalists will continue providing new information even after the trained journalists arrive on the scene.

4.Cell phones will be the primary reporting tool at first, and possibly for hours.

5.Cell phones that can use a wireless Internet connection in addition to a cellular phone network are a more versatile reporting tool than a phone alone.

6.Still photos, transmitted by citizens on the ground, will tell more than most videos.

7.The right video will get so many views, your servers might crash (I’m not aware of this happening with any videos from Mumbai).

8.Live streaming video becomes a user magnet during a crisis. (CNN.com Live: 1.4 million views as of 11:30 a.m. EST today, according to Beet.tv.)

9.Your print reporters need to know how to dictate over the phone. If they can get a line to the newsroom, it might be necessary.

10.Your Web team must be prepared for this kind of crisis reporting.

The Future of Blogging... Maybe

What do the Obama election, the terrorist crisis in Mumbai and US Airways Flight 1549flock of geese all have in common? They all proclaimed their popularity by the use of micro-blogging. While the most popular use of micro-blogging is still within the topic of “technology,” professional communicators are quickly realizing how their use of this new media is changing within the hierarchy of news reporting credibility. Marketers used to tell consumers what is popular and reporters used to determine what is newsworthy. The new communications model comes directly from the consumers. This means that micro-blogs and their followers have already begun to resemble the blogosphere and is no longer used simply for “status” reporting. In his article, “When Micro-blogging Grows Up,” Ben Lorica says, “more people are using Twitter instead of blogs, following links from trusted sources essentially using Twitter as a highly filtered blog reader.” According to the new communications model, the “trusted sources” that Ben discusses are not companies or so called professionals. Trusted sources today are everyday people, they are working class individuals that are able to report openly and honestly about their findings.

The reason why technology is still the most popular micro-blogging topic, is the same reason why technology started out as the most popular blogging topic. The people that are interested in technology, are the same people that create the technology for any new media item. So, they are the first to know about it and experiment with it. One way to measure the popularity of social media items and topics is by looking at the “Technorati's authority.” An interesting fact to technology, communications and politics bloggers and readers is that, “Obama dominated, accounting for 80% of subscribers in the politics category and over 70% of the Twitterholic 100 are based in the U.S. Blogs.”



Despite the growing popularity of micro-blogs, it is important to note that they are not blogs. Micro-blogs are only used for snippets of concise information while blogs are like live-journals that give more information and detailed opinions.

Burson-Marsteller.Com, Why it Works!!!

Burson-Marstellar.Com works because it has to work. This global public relations industry prides itself on "providing strategic counsel in the digital age." The site is user friendly in not only it's content, but also it's layout. For example, the search box is in the top right corner, where search boxes should be. Should, meaning expected based on most popular websites. In addition, all tabs are self explanatory and the logo appears in the same spot on each page to show users that they are still within the confines of the site. This site is also interactive and eye-catching. It includes a blog by all of its' associates (including Harold Burson), videos and podcasts.

Social Networking and Making Money

Written by Jon Swartz of USA Today, "Social-networking sites work to turn users into profits," tells the reader not only why it is important for social networks to start turning profits, but also how they do it. "Big-name advertisers are drooling over millions of young, affluent consumers who are spending more time on their online profiles than in front of TV and movie screens," Swartz says.

One of the main issues with current social networks is that they are "walled gardens." This means that users must have separate profiles, passwords and usernames for all of their accounts with the same friends. This forces users to choose between social networks. For example, "I am a MySpace person," is a common phrase used among social networkers. This phrase is used to separate MySpace and facebook "people" in the same way that MAC and PC users are separated.

Because social networking sites are "unlike e-commerce sites and search engines, they offer a more intimate setting for friends to share information," they cannot make money in exactly the same ways that other sites do so.

For example, "MySpace last month forged partnerships with major record labels Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and Vivendi's Universal Music Group to offer its 117 million members tickets, ring tones and artist merchandise." In my opinion, the reason why this was so successful is that the majority of MySpace people share one common interest, music. In fact, there is a separate site called, MySpace music that is conveniently merged with MySpace making the site user friendly for loyal MySpace music lovers.

"If you have the right audience and the right engagement, you can build a real media business," says Tina Sharkey, CEO of BabyCenter.

To read the article, "Social-networking sites work to turn users into profits," you can visit here.

"Hear It from the Experts!!!" PRSSA Blogmetrics

“Hear it from the Experts!!!” is a lecture series created by the William C. Adams Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) chapter at Florida International University (FIU). The purpose of this series is to help public relations majors understand the difference between the separate fields of PR as well as build relationships with professionals in their fields of interest. This education will help our members decide which direction they would like to go in after graduation and leading to that day.

As a mission expansion to this series, the FIU PRSSA executive board (E-board) has created this blog to give its’ members direct access to these professionals after their specific lectures are completed.

We will use the amount of activity and interactivity on this blog to determine how successful each lecture was, the popularity of specific lecturers and topics, what fields members would like more information about and other topics members are interested in researching.

This blog will also be used to give professionals incentive to volunteer for the series by creating duplication between their sites and our blog. We will analyze all of this information by analyzing the number of clicks on individual speakers’ pages as well as the number of visits by members and in what time increments.

By determining the stickiness of this blog, the FIU PRSSA E-board will be able to better serve our members throughout the “Hear it from the Experts!!!” series as well as within all other chapter development and professional development activities.