Micro Persuasion

Weblogs Inc. Takes "Lincoln Logs" Approach to Trackbacks

Marc Orchant discusses how Weblogs Inc. and Boing Boing are integrating trackbacks via Technorati, thereby avoiding link spam. Weblogs Inc also plans to integrate other linkback services (like Feedster, Digg, Del.icio.us, etc.) in the future. The feature is called "linking blogs." Well, I think "linking blogs" are to trackbacks what "Lincoln Logs" are to redwoods.

There are several disadvantages in this approach. The first is speed. Sometimes Technorati lags by hours if not days in digging up links. Trackbacks are instantaneous. The second is the "tap on the shoulder" impact. The beauty of a trackback is that you get to tell the other blogger you linked to them. Last but not least, this implementation is not user friendly. I need to click on a "Linking Blogs" link to find out if a post even has trackbacks. Often times you can see this right on a blogger's home page.

Blogebrity Fools Time Magazine

Time magazine has a blurb on Blogebrity in this week's Blogwatch column that makes it all seem very real. Amazingly, they seemed to neglect that it was all part of a big viral marketing campaign. Hey. some are even calling it a hoax. Did Time drop the ball here?

TypePad Battles Comment/Trackback Spam

TypePad is making significant improvements to address comment/TrackBack spam, including support for TypeKey-based comment authentication, moderated comments and TrackBacks and more.

Want Good PR? Just Hire a Blogger

WSJ: A small but growing number of businesses are hiring people to write blogs. Companies are looking for candidates who can write in a conversational style about timely topics that would appeal to customers, clients and potential recruits.

SMU Cans Blogging Prof

The Houston Chronicle reports that a professor who kept an anonymous blog about her experiences on campus was let go. The school says it wasn't about the blog, she says it was. The irony - she teaches PR ethics! (Via Shankman)

Blog Tips from a 900 Year-Old Muppet

There's a great post over on Tris Hussey's site on how Yoda would advise companies thinking about blogging...

• Blog you must for your business
• Truth, passion, authenticity a blogger must have
• Comment and trackback spam paths to the Darkside are
• Prideful blogging, a dangerous thing it is. A way to the Darkside it is
• The Blog-i Masters train you in the way of the Blog, they can
• Blog-i Masters guardians of the Blogosphere they are
• May the Blog be with you

Citizen Journalism Meets Online Dating

The Washington Post reports a handful of new Web sites are making it their business to let users review their online dates. What's next, giving members blogs? How about categorizing dates by tags?

French Media Companies Launch Branded RSS Reader

PaidContent.org: About 15 French media/online media companies have joined together, under the umbrella of GESTE, the Online Publishers Organisation in France, to launch a branded RSS newsreader called AlertInfo. The reader is built on the open-source Feedreader.

TV Guide is Podcasting

TV Guide has launched a weekly podcast on TV shows, movies and celebrities. (Via Podcasting News)

Writer Says Businesses Should Avoid Blogs

Smart companies don't blog, according to AlwaysOn writer Jesse Tayler, "because they simply do not return extra value or information from the investment." Huh? Jesse, show me the money. Where's the proof behind your argument? If you're going to make a claim like that, back it up. I guess Microsoft's smashing success with corporate blogs is like Wonder Woman's Invisible Plane.

Books Build Blog Buzz through Product Seeding

Blogs are having a significant impact on book sales. Take Freakonomics, for example. It's a bestselling book on the hidden statistics behind common riddles. It's getting a ton of media buzz. And yes, the authors have a blog, but it's bigger than that. They actively engaged the blogosphere as part of their marketing strategy by seeding advance copies of the books to influential bloggers - like Biz Stone. As you can see from the chart above, this was a smart move. The book is generating lots of love in the blogosphere. Product seeding - when it's a good fit between the product and the blogger - is definitely a PR strategy that can build word of mouse.

Robert Scoble points to a post about "Call to Action," another book that grew sales through word of blog. See a trend here?

CNBC Launches MSN Spaces Blog

CNBC Squawk Box has launched an MSN Spaces blog. (Thanks Thomas!)

Blog Advertises on News Site

To my knowledge this is a first. MarketingVOX - a blog for media buyers - is currently advertising on MediaPost, a news site for online marketers that's staffed by professional journalists.

Blogger Powers Google Press Center

Google is using Blogger to power its press center and generate a press release RSS feed. I think this could be something we'll see lots of companies do. It's more efficient for journalists when PR professionals post press releases themselves in a timely matter and simultaneously generate opt-in RSS alerts. Blog technology cures us from the occasional lag time that takes place once a corporate IT dept. gets involved in posting releases.

Blog Linking and Search Visibility

Scottie Claiborne at Search Engine Guide has written an overview of the types of links you can obtain to drive search engine visibility - including blog links. (via SEW)

Peter Predicts a Big Dead Tree will Fall

On his new blog PR pro Peter Shankman is predicting that in the second half of 2007 we will witness the death of the first "big" newspaper from the convergence of blogs, podcasts, and the like. He's not talking here about the Peoria Journal Star. He means the big boys like the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

There's no doubt that blogs are forcing newspapers to change. In fact, OJR reports that the LA Times is rolling out blogs and more. But I have to disagree with Peter here. First of all, mid-2007 is just two years away. Yes, technology is advancing rapidly. However, consumer habits aren't - just look at how many folks are reading RSS feeds right now. It's 5% of the total online audience, according to Pew. RSS usage will grow, but it's going to take time.

Also, the fact is that many people just love to read newsprint. Maybe in twenty to thirty years as the Baby Boomer population declines we will see the generations that grew up on the Net eschew paper. However, in the meantime I am not betting that print will go away so fast.

What may happen is that more people will begin to access newspaper sites throughout the day as an adjunct to what they read in the paper that morning. Blogs, podcasts and other forms of new media will help facilitate this thanks to their dynamic, conversational nature. Net, it's not a zero sum game - yet.

NY Daily News Starts Up RSS Feeds

The New York Daily News has launched RSS feeds. If my grandpa we're alive today he'd be signed up. (It was his favorite paper.)

GreatNews -a New RSS Aggregator

There's a relatively new entry in the desktop aggregator space and it comes from the Far East. It's called GreatNews. From the looks of it, they have some very nice features, such as channel statistics that show you your top 10 most or least visited channels and article tagging. They also integrate with Bloglines as well.

Two PR Guys and a Mic

PRWeek.com interviews Neville Hobson. He and Shel Holtz are PR consultants/bloggers who team up for the bi-weekly "For Immediate Release" podcast.

Newspaper Blog Exposes Inner Workings of Editorial Process

For several weeks, The Spokesman Review, a Spokane, WA daily with weekday circulation of about 100,000, has been offering an inside view into its decision making through twice-daily blog synopses of news meetings that include editors' critiques of the current day's paper and previews of what's under consideration for the next day. The Boston Herald digs into the newspaper's motivation. Transparency, of course, is at the top of the list.