Ten Blogs | PR & Marketing
I’m frequently asked what blogs I follow regularly. The simple answer would be to direct people to my blogroll – but I haven’t updated that in ages. Another item for the “to-do on a rainy day” list. So, I’m going to start a short series of posts with my top ten blogs in different categories.
My blog reader is a bit like the New York Times Sunday edition – very diverse. I enjoy the serendipity of stumbling across all kinds of relevant content. So I’m going to start with the practical – the marketing and PR blogs I scan daily.
I keep my hundreds of feeds in different folders – these are pulled from my “Read Today” folder and are the ones I spend time on most.
- Micro Persuasion: I look at Steve’s blog mainly for breaking Web2.0 and PR news. I’d say I read it less as a blog and more as a source of news. I also like what Jeremy as to say over at PopPR and also Johnnie Moore.
- Richard Edelman – 6 A.M: Great views and opinions. I like Richard’s perspective on the industry. His postings aren’t that frequent but I also enjoy reading Harold Burson.
- KDPaine’s PR Measurement Blog: Katie is the pioneer of so much of what we see today in measurement. If you are into accountable communications and marketing, you should start here.
- Keith O’Brien: I like his writing in PRWeek and like the blog.
- Holmes Blog: I breathed a sigh of relief when PRWeek launched in the US – it just seemed so wrong that all the US PR Industry had was a facsimile newsletter. Saying that, Paul’s writing on PR issues and trends is unmatched – the .pdf Holmes Report is a must to subscribe to.
- Armadgeddon: AR is the least appreciated element of the communications and marketing mix – yet the analysts are as, if not more, influential than the media. The dialogue is good and the observations relevant – if not a tad AR-biased. Some of the posts on transparency and the relationship between Analysts and paying companies are off the mark in my mind.
- James Governor: Not a marketing or PR blog but James’ observations on AR and marketing are very thoughtful.
- The 463: A tech policy blog. We need more of them. Also read Tim Dyson’s blog – leader of Next Fifteen, the mother ship for brands like Bite and Outcast.
- The Long Tail & Gladwell: Again, not strictly marketing blogs but that is the lens through which I look at them.
- Marketing Headhunter: Lots of good thoughts from Harry.
OK – so there is more than ten… Ooops, forgot one for all PR and media types. Read Jay Rosen whenever he posts.
Good Reads
- Boeing drives towards greater transparency using blogs…
Boeing’s early results suggest that the rewards outweigh the risks. The company’s two public blogs give Boeing a direct link to the public, something the 91-year-old company has never had before. And executives are starting to use internal blogs to get conversations going and allow employees to raise issues anonymously. “I’ve always been a big believer in open and honest dialogue that gets the issues on the table,” says James F. Albaugh, the chief executive of Boeing Integrated Defense Systems (IDS). He championed using blogs at the defense unit’s meeting of 1,000 executives in February. “I was a little concerned and I had no idea how it would turn out, but I’m sold on it.” – BusinessWeek
- Richard Edelman on the future of PR. You can listen if you like. Or, read the transcript.
- You can listen to Nicholas Carr here
Share Your Feeds
I’m often asked for what RSS feeds I subscribe to – this normally results in me sharing my OPML file. It’s really easy to export it from NetNewsWire. Steve has a good overview of this in a post this morning so I’ll let you read that.
Like Steve, I agree there is going to be lots happening in the coming year in relation to sharing RSS feeds – including this effort. Putting together an OPML file of feeds for their respective communities is one thing that every marketer should be doing.
I’ll get mine loaded in the next few days.
Blog Mood…
Fascinating story in the latest New Scientist on measuring blog mood:
The software, called MoodViews, was created by Gilad Mishne and colleagues at Amsterdam University, The Netherlands. It tracks about 10 million blogs hosted by the US service LiveJournal.
The latest addition to Moodviews, a program called Moodsignals, tries to explain match these blogospheric mood swings to current events. It identifies emotional peaks by comparing recent label usage with records of previous use. When it finds a spike, the program picks out less commonly used words from relevant blog posts in an effort to identify the cause of the emotional change.
Undertaking a Difficult Sales Job
An entertaining read from the Washington Post. Some PR folk will just go to the mat for their clients… I’m going to avoid an PR commentary on this… it really is just too funny. Every industry employs people this silly…. read the whole thing, it goes something like this…
Me: I am in receipt of a pitch you sent to a reporter at The Washington Post… you begin by noting that The Post has recently been covering the controversy over the sale of port management contracts to an Arab Muslim country. Then, employing a non sequitur of breathtaking proportions, or possibly one of the most tasteless transitions in the history of written communication, you say that, in a related development, you represent the National Funeral Directors Association…
Heather: Well, you are incorrect. That is not in context…
Me: Okay, here’s the context: “To follow-up on the articles being written in the Post about Bush’s port deals, John Fitch, VP of Advocacy for the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA), can discuss how America is planning to handle the potential mass fatalities from a terrorism standpoint — and perhaps more importantly to you, how small business owners (funeral directors) will play an important role. Most funeral homes are owned by the same family for an average of four generations.”
Heather: Well, yes. The roles they will play in mass fatalities.
