Micro Persuasion

Blog is Webster's Word of the Year!

Blog is Merriam-Webster's word of the year, Reuters reports. Kevin Duggan thinks it means bigger things are coming – like this (hopefully). The dictionary publisher said that blog, defined as "a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments and often hyperlinks," was one of the most looked-up words on its Internet sites this year. The term will become a new entry in the 2005 version of the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition.

Here Comes Bloghorn!

Mary Jo Foley reports that Microsoft's MSN division is expected to take the wraps off its MSN Spaces blogging service this week.

MSN is expected to tout MSN Spaces as a direct competitor to blog-creation and hosting tools, such as Blogger, Blog*Spot, LiveJournal and TypePad. Microsoft also will position MSN Spaces as a way to allow users to more easily share photo albums and music lists, too, insiders said.

Some users have been speculating that MSN will allow users to post to their blogs via MSN Messenger 7, the latest version of Microsoft's consumer instant-messaging client, which is in beta now and due to ship in early 2005.

She continues…

Some industry watchers have said they consider Microsoft's move into blogging as a counteroffensive against MSN archrival Google. Earlier this year, Google purchased Pyra Labs, the San Francisco-based vendor behind the Blogger blog-authoring platform.

MSN also is beta testing a service called MSN Blogbot, which is a blog-search service. According to sources, MSN is not quite ready to release the final version of MSN Blogbot. MSN Blogbot and its sister product, MSN Newsbot, also in beta, both rely on Moreover Technologies Inc.'s aggregation engines.

More tools from more big players = more competition and elevates blogging overall. To quote Martha, “and that’s a good thing.”

AdWeek Asks Are Blogs a Fad or Marketing Medium of the Future?

AdWeek: In the past few years, blogs have gone from a quirky vehicle for expression to a political force to, now, a quirky marketing tool for corporate America.

The Role of the PR Counselor in Client Blogs

Jeremy Pepper notes that Newsbluntly, the Newsmarket broadcast journalism blog I mentioned yesterday, is actually openly written by their PR firm, Plesser and Associates.

There are no biographies of these writers, so it's a little hard to figure out who they are. However, if you scroll down to the bottom of the NewsBluntly blog, you'll find that ... it's published by Plesser Associates.

Now, according to my favorite Website, Dictionary.com, one of the definitions of published is: To be the writer or author of published works or a work.

In this case, is that who the writers and authors of NewsBluntly are? Is it Plesser? Who - if not PR people - are better authorities on media? Our job is to interact with the media, so we should have some insight into the industry.

Indeed, as the screen grab below shows, the Newsmarket blog is written by the same PR contact who’s name is listed at the bottom of the company's press releases. My feeling is that's ok. We should praise both the client and their agency for having the courage to be completely transparent. Plesser's proudly saying "yes, we are writing our client's blog content and we're not ashamed." Newsmarket, on the flip side, is also proudly slapping their name on the site and saying "yes, we're ok with this."

Blogging is the biggest PR tool to come along since the Internet first dawned in the mid 1990s. As an industry, it's going to take time to identify best practices, sort out exactly where the boundaries lie and what the roles should be. I doubt that agencies will ignore companies who ask us to launch blogs even though they may not have the time to actively write them, just as we don't turn away ghost writing speeches or bylines. What we do need to do, however, is separate what works from what doesn't and what level of transparency and input is required. Time will tell.

Blogger Auctions Himself on eBay

This has been all over the blogosphere this week – Blogger Jeremy C. Wirght is auctioning himself on eBay. As the price tag reaches $1500, the story is now moving upstream into the press. Today CBS MarketWatch’s Frank Barnako caught up with him. Keep an eye out here to see how this evolves.

The Pedro Martinez of Blog PR

As we launch new client blogs - as we did today – and work to develop relationships with bloggers (who we treat as media), it’s critical that we find good, talented PR professionals who truly live in the new media world. I am not talking about people who just know what a blog is. I mean folks who grok them; people who live on Bloglines and gorge on them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Nine-year public relations veteran Ben Billingsley is one of them and I am proud to post here that he has just joined CooperKatz & Company as Manager, Client Services. Ben was previously Director of Accounts and Business Development at Trylon Communications, where he managed campaigns for MSN TV from Microsoft, MSNBC.com, Business 2.0, Jupiter Research and The Gallup Organization.

OK, I know your next question - who cares, does Ben blog? Ah, but he will. As many of you know I am going on my honeymoon at the end of next month. The wife has banned the ‘puter from the trip. Scoble suggests I map out every Kinkos from Honolulu to Hilo, but I know that won’t fly. Thankfully, Ben has agreed to blog here a bit to keep the site newsy. I plan to mix his riffs in with “Steve Rubel’s Greatest Hits 2004” where I will link to some of the more notable/controversial posts from the last year. Please be nice to Ben while I am gone, but you can kick me around while I am still here.

Podcasting Takes Off

Australian IT writes that podcasting is taking off and that the pros are hopping on the bandwagon early …

But, increasingly, professionals are adopting podcasting too.

Leo Laporte, a US national commentator on technology now podcasts his daily talk show.

Several major US radio stations are beginning to podcast some content.

Stealth Hyperlocal News Network Targets Newspaper Monopolies

A stealth project called Pegasus News plans to launch a beta test in Dallas in late 2005 to distribute local news content and advertising via the web, e-newsletters, RSS feeds, a daily print edition, SMS messaging and other mediums, according to an inside source who contacted me. The source currently runs a division of a major media company. Pegasus plans to follow this initial effort with local advertising-supported news sites in 25 major U.S. cities that have a monopoly newspaper.

The company recently launched a blog to diary the evolution of their concepts. On their blog, the company’s anonymous entrepreneurs say their key differentiators are:

• Hyper-local news, with neighborhood coverage producing 10x the local news and information of the incumbent providers.
• Open source journalism: The immediacy of blogging with the spelling, punctuation and fact checking of real journalists.
• Edgy, insightful news with opinion and personality.
• Fully integrated local news model: Website, email, text messaging, print, radio and TV.
• Innovative subscription model: Price based on level of engagement - more active and engaged users pay less (or nothing).
• Innovative advertising model: Pay-for-performance advertising on both digital and analog (print) products. Proprietary processes allow for performance tracking in real-time.
• Lower cost structure than legacy media.
• Experienced team with leadership experience across all media streams.

While not a lot is known about Pegasus right now, they certainly talk big. In particular they seem to be openly targeting Belo’s newspaper group. Still, there are a few blog posts that point to what’s up their sleeves. Start with their core principles, elevator speech and a post entitled Volume I, Number I and subscribe to their RSS feed.

Free Webcast on Search Engines and PR

I will be participating in a free PR Newswire webcast on December 14 at 3 p.m. eastern entitled “Leveraging Search for Greater Impact in your Public Relations Programs.” You can read more and register here. Participants include Denise Garcia, Principal Analyst, Media & Advertising, Gartner G2, Michelle Horowitz, Vice President, Content Development, PR Newswire, Ben Silverman, Editor, eReleases' PR Fuel, and Contributing Editor for FindProfit.com. David Berkowitz, Director of Marketing, icrossing, will moderate.

NewsBluntly Debuts, Tracks Broadcast Journalism Industry

The NewsMarket, an online platform PR pros use to deliver broadcast-standard news video to television journalists, launched a blog for the media community called NewsBluntly. The blog features original content by for broadcast-news staffers with succinct, riffs on major - and not so major -- "inside-the-newsroom" stories. Naturally, in addition to posts and relevant links to other media blogs and useful sites, NewsBluntly also links to the latest VNRs and B-roll provided by The NewsMarket. A sound bite from the press release …

"With NewsBluntly, we're addressing television newscasters' unique social network and embracing the concept of participatory journalism," said Shoba Purushothaman, The NewsMarket's CEO and co-founder.

Companies Commonly Hype Google in Their Press Releases

According to the LA Times, companies are commonly touting any loose affiliation with Google in their press releases…

Echoing the giddiest days of the dot-com boom, small companies are issuing press releases that trumpet any affirmation they get from online superstar Google Inc., even if it's just a bump in the Web search titan's rankings.

What the story leaves out, however, is that it’s not just companies who are in love with Google.The media loves Google too. PR trade O’Dwyer’s, for example, recently ranked agencies and trade organizations based on their showing in Google search results for “public relations.”

AP Says Wikipedia is Relied Upon as a Source

AP: Wikipedia is becoming a competitor to traditional sources

Wikipedia Creators Move Into News

Wired News reports that the Wikipedia has launched a demo of Wikinews – an open source news site…

Unlike Wikipedia, Wikinews will present original material rather than just compiling and summarizing information found elsewhere, according to the news site's organizers. For future submissions, organizers also want to set up a system for accrediting Wikinews reporters who have actively participated in the project.

In the article, noted blogologist Alex Halavais says that, as it matures, Wikinews won't resemble a mainstream news site and won't compete directly with established media outlets. Still, this site has major ramifications for the PR industry. Will anyone even dare venture to post their client news there?

Could a Blogger Be Rather's Successor?

Doug Powers has an interesting idea. He writes that if CBS really cared about the truth, they'd start their anchor interview process by talking to webloggers.

"The CBS Evening Blog" could be an enlightening venture into the future of news dissemination, but the network will hold firm and insist on a person who will secure the line that keeps the Big Media ship firmly in place, not drifting with the current of the times, as ratings continue to sink. History will show this is why they were called "anchors."  

I have another idea. I would love to see Dan Rather reinvent himself as a blogger!

We All Should Be Listening

It's not just the marketers who need to pay attention to what's being said in the blogosphere - it's the journalists as well. Glenn Reynolds reminds us of this today in pointing to a Baltimore Sun article that analyzes the role bloggers played in Dan Rather's retirement. A key quote from the story...

The fallout from Rather's Bush report is proof of that power: It was bloggers - not television or print journalists - who first questioned the authenticity of the documents on which 60 Minutes II based the segment.  

Just as Scoble today told marketers to listen and respond to bloggers, Reynolds advises journalists to do the same...

"And if I were running a Big Media outlet I'd pay someone to surf the blogs (or check links to my own stories from blogs via technorati) and then make corrections when they found errors. It's free, outsourced error-correction."

Target Please Listen

Dear Target, a PR crisis is brewing for your company in the blogosphere. Please tell me you're listening. Love, Steve

Journalist Says Blogs Make Microsoft More Transparent

Mary Jo Foley writes that 2004 was the year Microsoft opened up. She highlights the company's 1000 employee bloggers as well as Channel 9 as key factors.

Open Source Journalism is Here

World Magazine: Blogs are revolutionizing journalism, politics, and American culture, but many people still don't know what they are.

Blogger Uncovers Microsoft PR Gaffe

The Public Relations India blog claims that Microsoft or its PR agency released this photo of the new MSN Search to AP using the IE competitor browser, Mozilla Firefox. Brian Peterson, of Microsoft's PR firm Waggener Edstrom, told the blog: "None of our approved/distributed screen shots of MSN Search were made using a Mozilla Firefox browser. Moving forward, we will not be commenting on this issue".

Product Placement Advertising Invades Blogs

Product placement advertising - integrating products into TV programming - is the advertising rage here in US right now. Now blog pioneer and entrepreneur Marc Canter is porting this model to the blogosphere. Beginning this week 15 independent bloggers will receive $800/month each to mention a company on their blogs. They also will receive $50 for each lead they deliver. I am on the fence on whether this is smart strategy or not. On the one hand, the company gets to reach influentials in a very cost-effective way. On the other, I feel that it's tainted. These readers are well attuned to what's going on here and may abandon the bloggers for others where they can get similar information in a marketing-free environment. It will be fascinating to see how this works out.