CorporatePR

Widgety, Blidgety, Blogety, Bloo

Help.  My blog is hopelessly out of date in terms of all the wizz-bang widgetbligetsblogets that are now available.  I don't have the time to figure out what is useful and easy to implement, however.  Is there a kind soul out there who would like to help me out?  What are the top 5-10 things I should add/change in my blog's design/tools etc? 

I have been musing for ages about moving to a new platform (server-based) to have a hub for myself, but am putting that off for a bit (again, the time thing).  So for now, what are the quick fixes for a TypePad-based blog?

Book Review: In Women We Trust

I recently read In Women We Trust by Mary Clare Hunt (read her blog here) at the urging of Yvonne DiVita (it is one of her company's books).  Yvonne was putting together a virtual book tour and I was happy to help.  It has taken me a little longer than I had hoped to publish this review, as impending motherhood has gathered most of my attention.  I thank Mary and Yvonne for their patience!  I had the opportunity to correspond with via email and talk via phone to Mary, and really enjoyed our conversations.  There is much to learn from this book, and I recommend it – particularly for those marketers who are seeking to use word-of-mouth techniques to reach female audiences.

Mary captured the key to success in marketing to women in her title:  Trust.  Related to this (part of building this trust) are things like respect and community.  “But wait!” you say.  “Men want these things as well.”  Of course they do, and the techniques Mary writes about will work for men as well.  But as we women know intimately, marketers have done a rather bad job dealing with us.  It is time to focus on how to improve the relationship between brands and women. 

The book is full of examples that I am sure most of my female readers can relate to:  shopping for electronic equipment or cars are two iconic ones.  I still seethe when I think about how I was treated at a major electronics chain a few years ago when I went there to buy a digital camera.  Standing at the outside of the square counter, with the (male) clerk behind it, I was ignored completely while he waited on at least four other men (some of whom arrived after me), then when he finally asked me if he could help with a sigh, I launched into my questions, which he really didn't listen to (he barely looked at me) and then, when he was interrupted by another man with a “quick question” that turned into a lecture on the benefits of pixels, I simply walked away, left the store, and vowed never to buy anything from them again.  And I spread the word among my female friends.  I bought the $600 camera at another store.

Women will make or influence decisions on over 80% of all consumer purchases.  This statistic is one of many that will be found in the first part of the book.  As Mary wrote, “Money talks.”  Here are a couple of other data points I found interesting. Women make or influence decisions on:

• 83% of all consumer products and services
• 50-60% of all auto purchases
• 51% of consumer electronics (this number is from 2003 – from recent news I think it is increasing)
• 81% of riding lawn mowers.

Women cannot be ignored in the business-to-business arena either. They own 45% of all companies in the US, with more than $1.2 trillion in sales. They employ 18 million people.

So, how do marketers learn how to better tap this market rich in resources and possibilities? Mary believes a cultural shift is necessary “to the softer side of business.”

Update on the Social Media Front

You might be wondering, "Where in the world is Elizabeth?"  Yes, I admit I haven't been blogging much lately.  I had a huge project with a very tight deadline for the last three weeks in October, so blogging really took the back seat.  In addition, I am working on several papers for my master's degree, so I have spent more time reading philosophy then blogs.  But I am thinking about digital identity a lot!

So what has been happening lately?  First, the SNCR held its first annual Research Symposium in Boston last Thursday/Friday.  Congrats to Jen McClure for organizing another great event.  I was unfortunately not able to attend (my travel schedule has been severely curtailed by my doctor for the next few months as I am awaiting an exciting new addition to my family!), but it sounds like our 2007 research schedule is shaping up to be ambitious and relevant, with a particular focus on measuring online influence.  Sally Falkow has taken over for me as Research Committee Chair, given my time is going to be limited during the first half of the year.  (Thank you so much Sally!).

The 2006 SNCR Awards Winners were announced at the event (press release) - congratulations to all!  You can read their case studies here.  The first issue of the Journal of New Communications Research was also published.  You can download or purchase a copy here.  I have an article in it which lays out my network model for communications that I have been talking to audiences about for a year.

In other activities, back in September, I wrote an article on RSS in Corporate Communications for PRSA.  You can read it here.  I have another article appearing on comment platforms, like Digg.com, Flickr, YouTube, etc. in the print version of PRSA's Tactics, but I am not sure if it is published yet, as they don't list their table of contents (that I can find, anyways).  Please let me know if you see it!

The next Delivering the New PR conference takes place in London on November 10.  I will not be able to be there (as explained above), but I wish my fellow presenters, Stuart Bruce, Neville Hobson, Tom Murphy, Chris Rushton and Philip Young all the best! [Speaking of Philip, the EuroBlog 2007 Survey started yesterday. If you are a PR person in Europe, please spend 10 minutes answering the questions, as it will provide us with valuable insight into how things have changed over the past year.]

That is it for now!  I am forgetting to mention a variety of things, I am sure, but I'll be back...

Advice for Bloggers on Approaching Companies

Mike Manuel has published a must-read post for bloggers who are trying to get information, product etc. from companies.  He offers a few simple tips that would make life easier for everyone involved.
As PR people, we are constantly being lambasted for our inefficient, badevilhorribleunethical ways by bloggers.  While, unfortunately, there are some folks out there practicing bad PR, most of the people in the profession simply want to do a good job.  But in order to do that job, we need some pretty basic information, provided by the blogger (or journalist for that matter), such as your name, purpose of your blog, what you want from the company and why, and some contact information. 

While it would be nirvana to the PR person for you to explain your biases, your opinion of the company and other such items, we honestly don't actually expect you do to so. (We'll figure that out as we read your blog, etc.  Sometimes we'll be burned, sometimes we won't, that is all the nature of the game.)  But it isn't too much to ask for some information so we can get you the right data, line you up to talk to the right person, and so on.  If you provide all that, and we screw up, shame on us (and I'm sure you'll let us and all your readers know!).

"Completely Different" Video Site

I don't usually write posts based on pitches I receive (many of which are, simply, crap, sadly).  This one caught my attention because the subject line irritated me and resonated with Mike Manuel's post on buzz words, which I had just read.  The subject line was: A Completely Different Video-based Web Portal."  My first thought was, its a video web portal, how "different" can it be?  Hmmm. video...web.  Duh.  Video web portals are popping up all over the place.  Why should I take the sender's word that this is different?

So I ignored it the first time through, but didn't delete it (I don't know why).  After reading Mike's post (I looked at email before I looked at my newsreader), I went back to it, because I thought it would be a good example of what he was talking about.  So I opened it.  First line:

At www.mediasite.com you won't find the zany homemade videos that have made YouTube.com the rage of the Internet.

Ok, so you are doing something that isn't going to be the rage?  That will be different (smirk). And YouTube has much more than zany homemade videos.  But on to the next paragraph:

What you will find are highly relevant video presentations by some of the world's smartest and most influential people (Jack Welsh, Prime Minister Tony Blair).

Yep, the PR person is right, this isn't going to be zany (and probably not fun either).  However, from a communications perspective, there might indeed be something worthwhile here, so I clicked and visited.  The first headline for a video I saw was:

Vascular Cognitive Impairment

Whoo hoo!  I knew this would be fun!  I'd link to it but it is in Flash with no link available (not true for all videos, but this is one of their "featured" ones.  If I browsed around I suppose I could find a link).

Tracking Comments

One of the challenges for keeping track of online conversations for me has been tracking comments across a wide variety of blogs and other sites.  Yesterday, I started to use coComment to help me out.  It is a bit too early to say if it is a great service or not, but I have great hopes that it will work out for me. 

I've decided not to publish the list of places I am commenting on my blog yet (an option offered by the service) so I can get a sense of how it is working.  I have to admit to feeling a little reluctant to do so for another reason, which is that I sometimes comment on things that are rather off topic for this blog.  I'd really prefer to keep as tightly to topic here as I can, so I am not sure if putting a list of all the places I am commenting makes sense or not.  I am afraid I will self-censor.  I do comment under my name in other places, but that is different, given the effort it takes to find it, than having them appear in near real time here.  I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

Finally, a quick question.  I noticed that when I post a comment on a TypePad account, it is sent to the coComment server before I have to do the little "prove you're not a robot test".  I am not sure if that is also the case for moderated comments.  Does this mean that comments I post to someone's blog can appear on my coComment account, before/without them passing a spam test or being approved by the blog author?  This is an important question, because others can follow my comments as well via coComment.  (Yes, I am being lazy here vs. trying to find out, but I have some other things I need to do this morning.)

Ok, really the final thing - I posted a comment 10 minutes ago and it still isn't up on my coComment account, so this isn't real time (or near real time) by any stretch of the imagination (although I am not sure it needs to be for my own tracking purposes).  I'll keep track of that and let you know what I think after I've used it a bit longer. 

Using RSS In Corporate Communications

I am presenting a teleseminar for PRSA on Thursday (Sept. 21) at 3 p.m. ET on "Using RSS in Corporate Communications".  In preparation for that, I wrote a brief article for PR Tactics Online. You might remember I gave a similarly titled presentation last fall, which was quite popular.  I have updated it and added some new information, but it is still targeted at the beginner/early intermediate user of RSS.  If this describes you, I hope you can join us.  Just click here to register.

Is This My Dream Machine?

I have been putting off buying a new laptop because I have been holding out for a dream: a lightweight, inexpensive machine that provides just what I need: wireless connectivity, a number of USB ports, and the ability to connect to a projector.  After trying out my sister's tablet, I decided I really would like a tablet design.  It looks like my dream is getting close to reality if the announcements coming out of CeBIT are true.  A less-than-two-pound tablet with wireless for around $1000?  Cool.

While Microsoft Windows tends to drive me nuts (how many times do I have to reinstall the OS?), I have enough peripherals that I will stick with it at this point.  My friend is building me a Linux-based desktop system for when I am at home, but given how much I am on the road, I am looking forward to replacing my heavy laptop with the dead battery with something much more nifty and practical.

If you have an opinion on these new systems, please let me know!

Thinking About Wikis

I wrote a lengthy (2500+ words) article for the latest issue of the New Communications Review based on the reading I have been doing on wikis as we get ready to begin our wiki survey.  I have copied the introduction below.  For the whole article, visit here.  As usual, I am interested in your feedback.

Thinking About Wikis

Many of us who are early adopters of this technology believe that the wiki is an intriguing collaborative tool that has the potential for vastly improving knowledge worker productivity. This goal, improving knowledge worker productivity, is one of the major organizational challenges of the 21st century, as recently discussed in the Economist survey of “The New Organization” in its January 21, 2006 issue. While there are a plethora of collaborative tools and technologies available today, what makes the wiki so interesting, and such a good candidate for research studies, is that it is the most radically open of all tools, enabling anyone to change anyone else's content in mere seconds. Therefore, it very quickly gets at the heart of the human, social challenges to managing and creating knowledge.

We at the Society for New Communications Research are about to embark on a study of wiki use. Our goal in our project is to study how knowledge workers in creative roles (advertising, marketing, public relations, design, etc.) are actually using wikis in the context of their everyday work. This should enable us to make some judgments about what features are helpful and what features are not. At that point, we can start making recommendations about best practices for wiki design.

In preparation for this study, we conducted a review of recent research and scholarly papers that have been produced on the topic of wikis.

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As we evaluate the potential of wikis in organizations, several broad topic areas have presented themselves to us as critical to the success of a wiki. We won't have our results on our study for a few months, but in the meantime, we thought it would be useful to share with you these broad topic areas and some of the thinking and research that has been done to address them.

At the outset of our reading, it became very clear that any analysis of wiki usage will be multidisciplinary in focus. This, of course, did not surprise us, as all of these new participatory communications tools have the same attributes. In order to understand, design and successfully roll out a wiki, a familiarity with current knowledge and practices in areas as diverse as small group cooperation, knowledge management, individual psychology, societal norms and behaviors, and management skills and technical design. Below, we have identified some interesting sources of information that link each discipline with participatory communications. We share some of this thinking with you below. But first, we'll start off with a summary of some of the key challenges of collaborative systems that must be kept in mind when embarking on a wiki adventure.

Continued...

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Media Use of RSS Feeds?

I am looking for some data on how many journalists are using RSS feeds to get news.  Can you point to any studies?  Thanks!