Archive for the ‘Web 2.0’ Category

Looks like Spin Bunny is no more. I’m not sure but this could be the first Blog casualty of a legal attack? While the content was very UK centric it was always an entertaining read. I hope we know who did this to them and soon. Send the names over Bunny – we’ll get them!

Like they really need the money… but I guess there is nothing like a little commercial validation.

"As the Web becomes more personal, what is the right way for the advertiser to integrate itself into an increasingly personal experience?" asked Gayle Troberman, MSN’s director of branded entertainment and experiences team. "Once a user chooses to go to a branded experience — the advertiser is not just creating an impression, they are creating an advocate."

I’m not sure I get that we are choosing a "branded experience"… and that by advertising on our blog we become advocates. We do by default, but not by intent. Maybe that’s a reason not to use MSN Spaces – the fact you don’t get to choose who is advertising in your personal space.

According to AdAge:

Pushed live as a Beta test in December, the MSN Spaces concept, which provides anyone with an easy way to start a personal Web log, has proven wildly popular. MSN said 4.5 million people — or more than a million a month since testing began — signed up to use the free feature.

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Steve Gillmor makes a really interesting point:

This is the subscription economy we’re talking about. Not the Blogosphere so much as the Syndisphere. In this ecosystem the contract is based on continued attention, not captured attention. It leverages a form of broadcast couch potato dynamics, where inertia keeps you tuned from ER to Leno to Today. When CSI broke that cycle, it was a big deal. In the Syndisphere once you’ve signed on, it takes more effort than it’s worth to sign off. Unsubscribing requires real motivation.

I’ve recently found myself unsubscribing from Blogs that don’t add a whole lot of value to my reading. It’s a personal thing. But isn’t it nice to be able to build your own news flow? As we’ve all been saying – the user is in control. But what this points to is how little control I have – I get to turn the on and off switch, but the rest is way out of my reach.

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Thanks to Dan for the pointer. Good study and well worth the read:-

There’s a dramatic revolution taking place in the news business today and it isn’t about TV anchor changes, scandals at storied newspapers or embedded reporters. The future course of the news, including the basic assumptions about how we consume news and information and make decisions in a democratic society are being altered by technology-savvy young people no longer wedded to traditional news outlets or even accessing news in traditional ways.

I wonder how much time PR people – agency and client side – spend discussing media strategy and trends. We tend to make assumptions about what people are reading and when. In the (near) future, media planning and strategy will become as an important function to PR as it is to advertising today.

The dramatic shift in how young people access the news raises a question about how democracy and the flow of information will interact in the years ahead. Not only is a large segment of the population moving away from traditional news institutions, but there has also been an explosion of alternative news sources. Some have been assembled by traditional news organizations delivering information in print, on television and on the radio as well as via the Internet and mobile devices. Others include the thousands of blogs created by journalists, activists and citizens at large.

While the outright collapse of large news organizations is hardly imminent, as the new century progresses, it’s hard to escape the fact that their franchises have eroded and their futures are far from certain. A turnaround is certainly possible, but only for those news organizations willing to invest time, thought and resources into engaging their audiences, especially younger consumers. The trend lines are clear. So is the importance of a dynamic news business to our civic life, to our educational future, and to our democracy.

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Washington Post reports on the rise of the CEO blogger with this observation:

Since blogs became the next big thing, an increasing number of companies have come to see them as the next great public relations vehicle — a way for executives to demonstrate their casual, interactive side.

But, of course, the executives do nothing of the sort. Their attempts at hip, guerrilla-style blogging are often pained — and painful. By Amy Joyce, Washington Post Staff Writer, Saturday, March 19, 2005; Page A01.

While it’s a subject for a much longer post, I’ve long held the view that Execs can benefit from thinking of themselves as brands, and managing themselves as such. That doesn’t mean they are brands – although some argue that a person is as much a brand as a product, especially one so much in the public eye as a Steve Jobs. There’s no question in my mind that blogs (depending on execution) can either enhance or detract from the Executive’s brand. She gives a couple of good examples of how in one instance the communications appears painful, and in another, hip, cool and wired.

Plenty of quotes from Jonathan Schwartz, COO, Sun Microsystems. He gets at the core issue of communicating via blogs – and in fact, of building any brand – authenticity. "Authenticity is fundamental," he said in an interview. "Blogs get pretty dull if you just blog your products. There has to be something personal."

Tip for communicators:- when assisting Execs with their entry into the blogosphere, focus on authenticity. While they are communicating on behalf of the company, it’s them doing the communicating. Their blog can’t be a marketing vehicle or alternate news distribution mechanism to PR Newswire. It’s a place for them to engage in conversations with the market, and for us all to get a better feel for who they are and what they care about.

[update: Some great comments by Elisa over at the Worker Bees Blog. I agree with her that some of the criticism leveled by BW is a little unfair. I really like Lutz’ blog – the fact he welcomes comments (something most "corporate" blogs don’t do) earns him big brownie points.