OPP via RSS August 21, 2008
Posted by skmak in Uncategorized.Tags: blogs, Glossary, RSS
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Are you down with OPP? Other People’s Postings? (wow, get your mind out of the gutter)…
With the number of blogs and news sites that are out there, you may think it’s a pain to go to each website each day to check for new content. RSS is the way to keep track of all of your favorite website updates – blogs, news wires, company press releases, custom searches…just about anything.
RSS is Really Simple Syndication. You need an RSS reader in order to compile all of your feeds. I happen to use Google Reader, but there are several out there. RSS helps me follow 17 analyst and AR blogs, 14 marketing blogs, 2 friend blogs and 2 news wires each day. Think of it as the way for you to create your own daily newspaper. Your reader will have any new postings that come across these sites, and, most importantly, I don’t have to enter 35 different URLs everyday!
Once you choose a reader, all you have to do is click on the lovely orange RSS logo (cue Vanna White…please see above) that you’ll find on most sites on the web.
In the words of the infamous Ferris Bueller, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” There’s a ton of cool ideas posted online everday, if you blink, you may miss them!
Oh, Look! She Started Blogging! August 20, 2008
Posted by skmak in Uncategorized.Tags: blogs, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter
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My boyfriend’s 12-year old started a blog this month. She’s still getting used to it, so right now it mainly consists of what book she is reading and what she had for dinner last night. It’s really a way for her and her friends to keep in contact – I enjoy reading the comments more than her entries, sometimes.
So, it got me thinking. Here are some startling statistics for you:
- Facebook has 90 million active users, more than 75% log in each day and (in 2007) 22% of them were under 18
- MySpace, according to analyst Jeremiah Owyang, has 110 million active users, 15% of which are under 18
- In July, WordPress said that 257,163 blogs were created to bring them to a total of 1,102,039 active blogs
- As of January 2008, Twitter had over 700,000 users – as of today, they have 2,419,242 twitterers
The interesting thing is that the majority of Facebook and Myspace users are over 18! The other thing you should note is how quickly these communities are growing…and obviously this isn’t a comprehensive list! This isn’t just a “kid” thing. But, the digital generation is growing and kids find it second nature to share over the web.
Aw, look honey…she got her first comment! Go get the video camera, quick!
Church 2.0 August 16, 2008
Posted by skmak in Uncategorized.Tags: blogs, church marketing, social media, Twitter
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Two of my friends from high school, Brady Anderson and Dale Braswell, are packing up their families and heading West to begin a new church congregation in Seattle. The Seattle area has the lowest church-attending population in the US, so needless to say, this is an uphill climb. But, it occurred to me, Seattle is also a very tech-savvy community. Could they use social media to help them reach more people?
Pete Wilson
I went to Pete Wilson, pastor of Cross Point Church in Tennessee. Pete is an avid twitterer and blogger, so who better to ask about the benefits of deploying social media in a church?
Pete said that as his church started growing, he felt increasingly disconnected with people. ”I felt as if the vast majority of people in our church had less access to my thoughts, vision and life. Blogging was a great way to help them feel connected to me and also give me the opportunity to hear what’s going on in their life.” And, it’s catching on. Including Pete’s wife’s blog, there are eight other active bloggers at Cross Point.
Pete has three primary objectives for his blog. First, to cast vision. ”Blogging is a great way for me to find creative ways to cast and recast the vision of Cross Point church. I’ve found it’s very effective.”
Second, Pete wants to empower his congregation to do ministry. In the past, he said his community had many opportunities to sign up to do missions, give to the poor and serve in the church, but apparently the word wasn’t getting out. ”People often felt like we didn’t inform them about all the opportunities that were out there, and they were right. We just couldn’t fit it all into the 60-minute service once a week. Blogging now allows us to extend our communication time with them.”
Pete also uses the blog to get feedback. Since starting his blog, Without Wax, in January, he has received 6,782 comments. And, his visitors aren’t just from Cross Point. Looking at the cluster map on his site, he’s had visitors from all over the world. ”Blogging and twittering have been a very effective and sometimes immediate way to get feedback on what’s working and what’s not.”
Social media tools aimed at churches are all over the web. Sites like Sermon Cloud and Blogs4God act as content aggregators, similar to Digg. You can submit content, tag it and vote on the content you like. And don’t think that traditional social networking sites, like MySpace and Facebook are out of the question, either. Since churches are a gathering of people with a common belief – think of social media as a way to extend your reach. In fact, the possibilities are endless. Post pictures of retreats using Flickr, record your sermons for podcasts…Believe it or not, in doing research for this post, I actually found a church that Twittered during the sermon.
“Start somewhere,” says Pete. ”I know you won’t be able to do it all at first, but just start somewhere. It’s an incredible way to connect with the people you are trying to establish relationships with and eventually lead into a life-changing relationship with Christ.”
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Creating a Policy for Social Networking August 11, 2008
Posted by skmak in Uncategorized.Tags: blogs, corporate policy
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My team at work is trying to create a policy for employees wanting to use social networking, so I’ve been doing some research on this area. The first sticky point - this policy has to apply to both personal and business use of social networking. Why? Most people probably don’t have a separate online persona for their business network than they do for their personal network. For instance, if you are a Facebook user, you probably only have one Facebook page.
So, how does your company regulate a community that requires open person-to-person communication? Gartner Research urges businesses not to discourage social networking participation, but stresses the importance of having a policy in place.
It seems that the best practice around this is to have a trust policy that outlines the guidelines and acceptable practices around employee involvement. Policies should be incorporated into the corporate communications policy as well as into the hiring process paperwork. Forrester Research mentions in its report, “Getting Work Done in Virtual Worlds,” that IBM has an internal policy which includes words such as “use good judgement” and “protect your – and IBM’s – good name.” Some organizations extend their ethics policies to include online profiles and communities. In fact, I was listening to the radio the other day as a caller said she was reprimanded at work for inappropriate content on her Facebook profile. It’s important that employees are aware that if their profiles identify them as an employee of a company, their postings could have an impanct on the company’s reputation and brand, says Gartner.
It’s also important that employees know not to disclose company-sensitive information, trade secrets or anything that could be seen as an official view or statement by the company. Which brings me to an important update – you know “Janet”, the ExxonMobilCorp twitterer? She’s now claiming that she is an employee of the company. Remember, people thought she was a corporate official, and even quoted her. See some of the damage she has caused here, here, and here.
While its impossible to control everything that’s said about a company, businesses need to be aware of the risks of promoting online participation. (And, also know, whether you’re promoting it or not, your employees are participating.) Discuss the risks with your marketing and branding team, as well as with your corporate sponsor. How will you react to a negative comment on a corporate blog? What happens if someone tags an inappropriate video on YouTube with your company name? What if an employee airs a disagreement to corporate policies online? While these are hard to counteract, it’s important that you are prepared.
Let me know how your company is handling the online groundswell.
Blogger Relations August 6, 2008
Posted by skmak in Uncategorized.Tags: blogger relations, blogs
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The statistics on the number of blogs on the internet, and the number of people who read those blogs is greatly varied – and, quite outdated. The fact is that blogs have proliferated the internet and readers of blogs find them to be a great source of data. Certainly, blogs factor into consumer buying decisions.
So, should blog writers factor into your public relations, media relations, analyst relations - oh, let’s just say influencer relations – strategy? Of course!
Jeremiah Owayang, Forrester analyst, details how bloggers, mainstream press and analysts are starting to look alike in his blog. He says that analysts are acting like mainstream press, bloggers are acting like analysts, and the mainstream press have become bloggers.
Here are some tips on how you can begin to influence bloggers:
- First, you need to find the relevant blogs for your constituents. For instance, in my role, I need to follow analyst and analyst relations blogs. Most blogs will have a blogroll, which will make it easier to find other blogs of similar content.
- This may sound intuitive – READ THE BLOG. Make sure that they are really covering issues that pertain to your area. Likewise, you want to give them information that pertains to the stories they are writing about.
- Get involved. The best way to form a relationship with a blogger is to comment on his/her stories. Participate in the discussions. People – not just bloggers – are more likely to respond to information from individuals familiar to them. Don’t just send information, like a cold call.
- The State of Blog Relations says that “almost half of bloggers receive an email pitch from a PR professional at least once a day” and “the majority were contacted by PR professionals at least once a week.” Of those contacted, 42% say they “write about something after being contacted.”
- Remember to treat bloggers with the same sense of urgency that you would the traditional media, or you risk ruining the relationship.
- Be upfront and honest about who you are, who you are with and what you want. Remember, social media is all about open and transparent communication.
The Corporate Blog Just Got Elevated August 1, 2008
Posted by skmak in Uncategorized.Tags: blogs
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In a landmark announcement Wednesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) now officially recognizes corporate blogs as a form of financial disclosure. Previously, companies had to send filings, usually in the form of a traditional press release, to the wire services for official disclosure. This ensured that information reached a majority of the market at one time, and no one person had access to important financial information before another. However, these wire services could charge $1,000 or more per filing, which creates restraints for small businesses and the amount of information availalble to the general public.
This new decision, however, opens the door to what some are calling the Social Media Release. By using multimedia tools, such as the corporate blog, linked to YouTube, with links on Del.icio.us, the traditional press release could be a thing of the past.
Brian Solis, on TechCrunch, wrote an excellence (and fully comprehensive) blog regarding this decision. If you are in PR, I highly recommend reading it.
One small decision by the SEC, one large leap for social media.
While we’re on the topics of blogs, here’s a list of some of the top corporate and/or CEO blogs:
- Jonathan Schwartz, President & CEO, Sun Microsystems – Let me say that I applaud Sun for creating a blogging culture. Just visit their website to see how many blogs they actually have.
- Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and previous founder of Broadcast.com – Aside from the insane tyrant he can be on the basketball court, this man really is an Internet genius
- Kevin Lynch, Chief Software Architect, Adobe
- Robert Lutz, Vice Chairman, GM
- Mike Critelli, Executive Chairman of Pitney Bowes
- Bill Marriott, CEO, Marriott International
Some of these are fairly dry. Afterall, they are still CEO’s…just because you put a computer in front of them (or their intern – I’m not that easily fooled), doesn’t necessarily give them a personality.
The point is, company communications is definitely changing.
