Not a huge surprise, but there is data now demonstrating the huge influence bloggers have to influence shopping decisions. I read a blogger I like and trust; she recommends a product or service and I'm likely to trust that recommendation. It's the old-fashioned word-of-mouth method that marketers consider the holy grail of marketing (and soooo tough to accomplish), only amplified with more "ears" to hear what one is saying.
This has huge implications for marketers who are always trying to get in front of the influencers and generate that buzz. Here at NTM, we are finding more and more clients who are interested in reaching out to bloggers and we continue to develop models to make that happen (and track the response).
Twitter continues to gain momentum and elevate its status as a "news" medium as a passenger on board the Denver plane crash was one of the first to break the news . . . and he did it by tweeting about it!
Bet You'll Never Guess The 3rd Largest Blogging Country
It's Iran. It's a country of 70 million people, about half of whom are under 25 and eager to share their thoughts and general displeasure with their government. The Internet allows them to voice their opinions and they are doing it en masse: Iran currently has about 100,000 active bloggers.
I'm half-Iranian. The lovely young woman you see pictured here is my dear aunt when she was young. She lives in Connecticut now, but I still have family in Iran. They are big fans of instant messenger services and we often connect that way. And while Iran can't police the entire Internet, they do restrict some sites. I have not found an easy way to share photos, for example, as sites like Shutterfly are banned.
Marketing is, at its core, about communication. How we communicate ideas and to whom we communicate them. So I've always found that marketing and politics are close cousins but I've generally resisted blogging about that intersection. (Oh boy, was it tempting this year!) Still, I couldn't resist this time because I was floored to find out how many bloggers there are over there. Imagine the social network they are developing. Now think about how much influence bloggers are having here in the States. Who knows where this could lead?
How Twitter Will Transform Your Business Series: Twitter and PR
Twitter reigns as the de facto social media tool of 2008. But you're probably wondering "what does its mega-popularity have to do with my business?" The answer: more than you think.
Over the next couple of weeks, I will attempt to build a solid business case for Twitter for every day business. Why? Because as you already know, we must evolve with the times. How we used to do business yesterday may not be as effective today. We're committed to helping you cope with the dynamic marketplace and find realistic strategies for success. And I am a social media advocate. By the end, I will have either transformed you into an avid Twitter-er or crashed and burned. You decide.
First, let's examine how Twitter will transform Public Relations.
As a public relations professional, I know there is nothing more important than relationship-building and relevancy. In the old days (3 years ago), we used to attend parties and networking events, host "lunch and learns" and hold press tours in order to establish an amicable, respectable relationship with our journos. When we pitched, it was that relationship that helped us place stories (hopefully) because we would know a journo's beat, their preferred delivery method, tone, etc.
While the relationship-building still is at the epicenter of PR, there are tools on Twitter that help facilitate and add value to this process.
Jornchat is a live discussion every Monday 8-10pm EST where everyone from journalists, PR professionals, and students have the opportunity to work collaboratively and share insights.To participate, you simply type your comments in Twitter and include #journchat. By using a service such as search.twitter.com you can search for and follow all Tweets that included #journchat.
HARO (Help-A-Reporter-Out) is a daily newsletter produced by Peter Shankman that provides PR folks real details of reporters looking for experts and sources for their stories. However, Peter Shankman (@skydiver) uses Twitter to announce urgent requests, which are usually from major outlets like CNN and Washington Post and The Today Show.
MicroPR is a newly developed offering created by Brian Solis and Stowe Boyd. It connects journalists, bloggers, analysts and PR/marketing professionals together in a way that was unimaginable prior to Twitter. It aims to connect information, sources and stories to the people. Subscribe to the @MicroPR feed and definitely follow it on Twitter.
So for the public relations industry, Twitter is proving to be a fantastic representation of the changing media landscape and the role of social media: real people coming together online to share and discover new information.
Are you one of the 59 million people who will be traveling this holiday season? We dug up some of our favorite useful tools to help you keep a peaceful pace this season.
For the Speed Demon
This is a free iPhone app that warns you of speed traps and traffic cameras, helping you avoid fines and points on your driver’s license.
For the Jet Set
Mobile application for the iPhone, Treo, Blackberry and Windows Mobile. Great for Business and family travel, it can track itineraries and all related details for a trip.
Great travel-oriented social networking site
Capture Precious Moments
Stickam - Stream live videos of your vacation from your mobile phone.
Upload mobile photos and share them with all of your social networking sites.
I saw this on ABC News the other night and knew I had to share. This 30-year old video is one of the top Google searches in the Czech Republic. It's quite funny. Enjoy and have a great weekend!
Susan Lucci Caught Up in Detroit Drama - Advertising Age
When the car industry suffers, the media suffer, too. Why? Because the auto industry is one of the largest advertisers on television and print. When I worked in television during a recession, our sales reps took a big hit when the local car dealers cut back on their ads.
But it's not just the advertising sales departments that are suffering. Apparently, all that declining revenue has hit the production budgets, too. Big name t.v. celebs like Susan Lucci are taking pay cuts and others are losing their jobs altogether. Even a fixture like Deidre Hall, who has been on "Days of Our Lives" for over 30 years are gone. (They didn't even bother to cut her salary, like Lucci; they just got rid of her altogether.)
Seth Godin Warns: The Internet is almost full (Make Life Easier)
Seth Godin warns us that the Internet is almost full, not in terms of physical space -- that's almost unlimited -- but in terms of our mental capacity to keep up. It really is overwhelming at times. How do you read all your emails, much less keep up with the news you want to read?
I'm only halfway there, but one of the most helpful things I've done is set up an RSS reader. What's an RSS reader? RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication. Your favorite websites and blogs (like this one) have an RSS feed that you can subscribe to. This will let you know when there is a new post and give you a quick summary of it (you can then decide to click thru to the full post).
You need to subscribe to these feeds in some sort of a reader. It's like the personalized My Yahoo or iGoogle pages, both of which use RSS feeds to populate your selected content. But the one I like and use is Google's Reader. It has a list of my feeds down the left hand side. I click on one and get summaries of stories (or blog posts) in a reading pane -- just like email. I scroll through and scan and click if I want to read more. To add a site to your reader, just look for the RSS or Atom XML button on a site. (Sometimes, I do a CTRL+F which is a "find" shortcut and type in "RSS" to find the feed button.) Once you click on that, it'll ask you where you want to put the feed, and there is almost always an option to add it to your Google Reader.
It's simple once you get the hang of it. If you try it and need help, just shoot me a note and I'll help you out.
One more thing: I often read news on my phone when I'm in waiting rooms or standing in lines. You can pull up your Google reader on most mobile phones and it optimizes the content for mobile viewing. That's another tool I use to keep up with what's going on and maximize my time a bit.
What happens when you post a ten-year old video of you and your college buddies singing group on You Tube? If you're this group of Indiana University crooners (my alma mater!), you get over 8 million views, one of which was by a president of a record company. Guess what happened next? A record deal and a holiday album. Enjoy the video of the college performance that started it all or buy their album here.
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