What’s the next big thing online — the next Twitter or Facebook? That’s the question many people are asking, especially those in the PR and marketing industry. To help answer it, Social Media Examiner’s Peter Wylie selected five social media Web sites that could attract large audiences in the near future. One of them is Foursquare (the logo is pictured here). “These networks have not reached mass adoption yet, so it’s not necessary to get active on all of them immediately,” Wylie wrote. “But remember, Facebook only took six years to reach 400 million registered users.”
Too often the full potential of a corporate blog isn’t realized, said Tom Johansmeyer, the senior content director at enter:marketing. “Corporate blogs either don’t deliver on expectations or, worse, are left to suffer a quiet, lonely death,” he wrote. Johansmeyer identified five reasons why blogs reach this demise.
Calling it the “Wordpress of micro-blogging,” TechCrunch reported Tuesday that StatusNet, which is free, open-source software that allows anyone to build a Twitter-like platform, is now available for the public. The current version is free; StatusNet plans to offer a paid, premium version, too. “CEO Evan Prodromou describes the various ways StatusNet can be used ... as the basis for an online community (ning.com for microblogging); for enterprise (Open Source Yammer), or for a single user to own their social media presence (your own ping.fm),” reported TechCrunch.
Have you signed up for the PR Daily webinar that’s all about how to use a Flip Video camera in your communication efforts? The $99 event takes place Tuesday, March 16. Don’t miss out. Learn more here.
This week, Olmstead Williams Communications rolled out PRTechConnect, which charges a flat, monthly fee for a range of PR services, reported Inc. magazine. “PRTechConnect is geared toward tech start-ups with limited marketing and PR budgets,” Inc. explained. “The News Release Package, which costs $999 a month, includes services such as the creation and maintenance of a master list of media contacts, customized news release templates with tips for making announcements stand out, targeted media pitching for 20 news releases per year, and basic wire service distribution to Google News, Internet search engines, and RSS feeds. Companies must commit to at least three months; a $1,500 set-up fee will be waived if they commit to six months.”
Duke University School of Nursing is seeking an assistant dean to provide strategic leadership and supervision of the communication and marketing activities of the Office of Marketing and Communications. Read more about this job.
Is your company ready for a crisis? It better be, says brand strategist Jonathan Salem Baskin. “Crises don't as much violate the status quo as they're an integral part of the outsourced, networked way most big businesses are run,” he wrote for Advertising Age. “I say they're likely to become the new normal (notice how many major vehicle recalls have happened since Toyota's woes first surfaced). You can depend on facing a major product crisis. The only question is when.” To help you prepare, he offered this three-step action plan.
How do you turn virtual relationships — the kind you build via Twitter or Facebook or blogs — into brick-and-mortar (so to speak) friendships? PR pro Christina Khoury, writing for the PRBreakfastClub blog, offered five tips. Related Solo PR Pro An interview with the anonymous editor and publisher of PRBreakfastClub.
The author of this list, Barbara Horwitz-Bennett, a former Reed Business Information editor and now a regular contributor to several trade publications, promises these 10 ideas will “keep the media coming back for more.”
Should your company have a Twitter account? Only if it lives up to these 11 commandments, says Bernhard Warner, editorial director of Social Media Influence.
Hollywood trade publication Varietyfired its chief film critic of 31 years, Toddy McCarthy, and its chief theater critic, David Rooney. Variety said both men have offers to contribute on a freelance basis. Iconic film critic Roger Ebert wasn’t too happy about the move. “The glory days of the famous Variety critics are finished,” he wrote.
Last Friday, Gawker’s John Cook unearthed some troubling inconsistencies in an ABC News report by Brian Ross about sudden acceleration in Toyota vehicles. Toyota seemed to notice daylight in the unending negative coverage of its recalls and seized upon it. On Monday, the automaker issued a press release that “raised serious concerns about the validity, methodology and credibility of a demonstration of alleged ‘unintended acceleration’ in a Toyota Avalon by Professor David Gilbert of Southern Illinois University and depicted in ABC News broadcasts and on-line segments.” Toyota also noted that Gilbert’s preliminary report was commissioned by trial attorneys suing the automaker. Related The Christian Science Monitor “A runaway Prius in San Diego stole the spotlight Monday from Toyota's spirited defense of its electronic acceleration system,” reported CSM.
The finalists for the annual awards that honor the nation’s best city and regional magazines were announced this week. Finalists with the most nominations (10 or more) are Texas Monthly, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Los Angeles magazines.
O’Dwyer booted nine agencies from his annual ranking of PR firms — most notably Waggener Edstrom, which he has publicly called out — because they have failed to buy subscriptions to the O’Dwyer PR newsletter. Mark Story, the director of new media at the SEC, thinks this is a misstep for O’Dwyer — and that he shouldn’t stomp around making demands like Rupert Murdoch. “If you are considering charging more, the last thing that you want to do is to take your battle public and get into a pissing match with a client,” Story wrote on his blog, Intersection of Online and Offline. “Oops. He did.” Related O’Dwyer PR Blog In a lengthy blog post, O’Dwyer further explained his beef with Waggener Edstrom.
The survey, by viral marketing scientist Dan Zarrella, “attributes this trend to the fact that the majority of large companies block Facebook in the office,” so they share links when they’re away from work. Related Advertising Age Five reasons companies should not block social media access.
Oh, Lindsay, you were so cute in Mean Girls, so full of promise. And now, well, you’re suing a financial company “insisting that a boyfriend-stealing, ‘milkaholic’ baby in its latest commercial — who happens to be named Lindsay — was modeled after” you, according to the New York Post. And you reportedly want $100 million for your pain and suffering. Oh, my. Meanwhile — switching from second person to third person — the blog Crushable tried to contact Lohan’s high-powered publicist Leslie Sloane-Zelnik for comment, and it turns out Lohan is “on hiatus” from her PR rep.
Robert H. Christie is the new senior vice president of corporate communications for The New York Times Co., beginning March 22. He was formerly the chief spokesman for Dow Jones, which prompted this headline from Reuters: “New York Times poaches Wall Street Journal spokesman.” The Murdoch-Sulzberger war never ends. Related Associated Press Nick Ascheim, a former Times executive who helped run the paper’s Web site, accepted a job with the Associated Press, where he will “guide the AP’s effort to sell consumer applications for the Apple iPad and other digital devices.”
Photography instructor Phil Douglis traveled to Vancouver for this lesson, which will help you enliven the pictures that appear on your Web site, intranet, or in your print publication.
A communicator is pitching his CEO the idea of a short-term blog—perhaps a blog for the month of March only—hoping he'll enjoy blogging and take it up year-round. What do you think?
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