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
Yahoo Unveils New Look… Unless You’re On Safari…
No new look if you are on Safari. So, over to Firefox… and presto, there it is… Not bad…
Tim O’Reilly Speech
Here is his commencement speech. Three good lessons and lots of commentary on Web 2.0.
The first was to be fearless in what you attempt. The job I eventually mastered was an enormous stretch for me. The second lesson was that a difficulty is often an opportunity in disguise. I built my company by bridging the information gap that I first encountered that day. The third lesson was the importance of serendipity in your life choices. I never imagined that I’d build a career as a technical writer, publisher, and entrepreneur. My training was in Greek and Latin Classics!
And… (thanks to Nicholas for the pointer – this stood out for me as well)
If history is any guide, the democratization promised by Web 2.0 will eventually be succeeded by new monopolies, just as the democratization promised by the personal computer led to an industry dominated by only a few companies. Those companies will have enormous power over our lives – and may use it for good or ill. Already we’re seeing companies claiming that Google has the ability to make or break their business by how it adjusts its search rankings. That’s just a small taste of what is to come as new power brokers rule the information pathways that will shape our future world.
As a result, I urge you to think hard about the consequences of new technology. Don’t just take for granted that technology will bring us a better world. We must engage strenuously with the future, thinking through the dark side of each opportunity, and working to maximize the good that we create while minimizing the harm.
Google Trends & Measurement
Google trends is going to be of interest to any communicator interested in measurement. It’s a quick way to see where attention is being directed and what folks are interested in.
Steve has a big post on this and a good case study on using the different blog measurement tools. He makes my case – visually – that the next big frontier in communications measurement will be correlation. That is the “mash-up” of a variety of communications measurement tools and sources to provide an integrated view of performance and effects of different programs.
I’m going to add a post on this over the weekend that explains some of my thinking but here are a couple of other takeaways I would add to the list as I correlate our marketing data:
- News drives conversation and searches (not a big revelation) – agree with Steve.
- It’s important to set up searches for a new brand before it launches, just to make sure it doesn’t leak – Yes. You also need to consider the impact of brands or search terms that deliver many results. These cloud the output.
- It takes time to go from conversation to and searches to actual traffic. Yes.
- You can benchmark your product launch against that of a competitor using these tools to see how you did. You can also layer in clip report data.
- If you are in tech, look at the impact of some of the next generation analysts – the impact in terms of traffic to your site can be remarkable.
- Measure the relative cost of SEO vs. other elements of the marketing mix using these tools.
- Think about configuring landing pages on your site for news announcements. Don’t expect people to hop around your site aggregating the various elements of what you are talking about. Your blog is a perfect place to do this.
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.
