Micro Persuasion

New iPods September 12?

Happy day. iLounge is reporting that the word on the street is that Apple is going to host a special event for new products on September 12 in California. Yay. New iPods.

New Singlegator Site Rolls Up Gadget Blogs

Lately, I am diggin' single page aggregators that people build around a topic using feeds. Don't get me wrong, RSS by itself is awesome. But "singlegators" (cmon, we need a cool word, right?) make it much more efficient for me to stay abreast of many blogs that focus on one theme.

I'm not alone. Brian Benzinger has a nice round up of a bunch of these sites. These include diggview and many others I hadn't heard of. Clearly this is going to be a space to watch. Someone should create a singlegator of PR and marketing news.

Speaking of singlegators, one of my new faves, Original Signal (which tracks Web 2.0) just launched Transmitting Gadgets. The new site rolls up the popular gadget blogs.

Tags: originalsignal, gadgets, singlegators

Test Your Web 2.0 Awareness

OK, now this site is a little freaky, but it's fun too. "How Web 2.0-Aware Are You?" uses some slick technology to determine which Web 2.0 sites you have visited recently and assigns you a Web 2.0 awareness score. (Via the Museum of Modern Betas)

Washington Post Plans Social Net for Readers

In the latest in its series of moves to become a "two-way" newspaper, the Washington Post is gearing up to launch a social network of its most passionate readers.

According to Colin Delany, WashingtonPost.com is implementing reader comments on all news stories. You can see a sampling here. They're starting with less controversial topics and will expand to all stories once content filtering mechanisms are operational. The Post also allows you to request the removal of a comment that you find objectionable.

From there, the Post will encourage readers to create profile pages that aggregate all of his/her comments in a central place. This in essence turns the Post Web site into a social network for people who actively comment on the site.

Tags: washingtonpost, newspapers

links for 2006-08-31

• The Jeff Pulver Blog: Jeff's Guide to "TV Shows Only Available on the Internet"
  (tags: Video)
• Geek to Live: 6 ways to find reusable media - Lifehacker
  How to find tons of freely available photos, songs, movies and documents
  (tags: Video photos creativecommons Media search)
• FT.com / Technology - Advertisers unleash new web tactics
  "In the years since the dotcom bust, a vast advertising infrastructure has sprung up, allowing entrepreneurs to outsource their revenue streams."
  (tags: Web2.0 Advertising entrepreneurship)
• FT.com / Companies / Media & internet - Web ads sector lacks experienced staff
  "The difficulties of hiring people who know how to create, sell and measure internet advertising are limiting the pace at which marketers can shift money from traditional media to hot web properties"
  (tags: community Marketing Advertising)

Dave Winer Intros Mobile Blogging Tool

Dave Winer, considered by many as the father of blogging, has introduced a web-based mobile blogging tool that allows anyone to write and (this is key) edit blog posts using a mobile device. For PR professionals managing blog projects, such a tool is essential since we're often on the go and not far from a Blackberry.

Create and Share Feed Pages with SpeedyFeed

If you liked Original Signal - and judging from the traffic I am getting from it, you do - you can now build your own similar site easily. SpeedyFeed offers a nice way to create customized start pages that you can share with the world. Here's a list of the most popular feeds people are adding to their pages. Give it a go.

I've Been Rocketboomed

Last week I had the pleasure of sitting down with the delightful Joanne Colan from Rocketboom. They posted the interview today. Don't miss the end. There's blatant product placement! There are bonus clips on the Rocketboom site as well.

YouTube by the Numbers

Lee Gomes from the Wall Street Journal dives head-first into YouTube and dug up some fascinating data...

* In a single month the number of videos on the site grew 20% to 6.1 million

* YouTube has some 45 terabytes of videos

* Video views reached 1.73 billion

* 70% of YouTube's registered users are American, roughly 50% are under 20

* The total time people spent watching YouTube since it started last year is 9,305 years

Tags: youtube

links for 2006-08-30

• Leaving Search Engine Watch
  Danny Sullivan departs SEW. Good luck Danny. I'll be watching from the nosebleed seats.
  (tags: search blogs)
• Water Cooler Wisdom
  A great blog on careers, written by one of my colleagues.
  (tags: careers blogs)
• The Baby Name Wizard: NameVoyager
  How popular is your name when you were born?
  (tags: demographics Trends Fun)
• URL Investigator
  Very handy site. Checks PageRank, Alexa and more.
  (tags: SEO Search pagerank URLs domains Alexa)

Browse Web 2.0 News by Logo

Web2Logo.com is a visual front end for Web2List. Both are outstanding for finding and tracking various Web 2.0 startups. The logos on Web2Logo.com link off to a Web2List page with the latest news about the company, Alexa info, blog chatter volume and even a profile written by the company. Here's one for digg. All that's missing are RSS feeds by company. There are tags, comments and a digg-style interfaces as well. Good stuff.

TagFetch Tag Search Engine Revamps

TagFetch, which searches the various services that utilize tags, has relaunched with a new design that looks a lot like a start page. The site is incredibly handy. You can filter by rich media, bookmarks, blogs, news and more. We need more services like these that glue stuff together. For a sampling, check out this TagFetch page for the "public relations" tag.

Three Ways to Ride the Long Tail

The following is also my column in this week's Advertising Age.

Three Ways to Ride the Long Tail

What Marketers Should Know About Reach, Niches and Big Media in the New Landscape

One of this summer's hottest beach reads is "The Long Tail" by Chris Anderson. By now you probably already know the book's thesis: The future of creating demand lies not at the head of the curve (e.g., the most popular hits created by Big Media) but rather down the "Long Tail" of niches.

Through rich anecdotes and examples, Anderson does a wonderful job documenting the Long Tail's impact on media and marketing. He makes plain how the blogosphere and online communities are creating an environment where a thousand points of light can outshine the largest of media. However, where the book falls short is in giving marketers a playbook. Here are three ways marketers can thrive in a Long Tail world.

Rethink reach

Reach metrics are the currency of the advertising community. We're obsessed with eyeballs, gross ratings points and page views. But in a Long Tail world, reach has entirely new meaning. Many niche sites, for example, can't hold a candle to the traffic at the head of the media curve. However, what they do have going for them is credibility. If your brand is mentioned five times on a site that your 20 most influential customers trust, that's gold. Word of mouth will only ripple from there.

Fund niches

In the last few years, some niches have crystallized nicely. For example, it's easy to find thriving communities obsessed with BlackBerries and other gadgetry. The same goes for political blogs. Whether you're a Lefty or a Righty, you have a home. However, sometimes the Long Tail doesn't flow down into the niches you care about most. Marketers should play a role in funding the development of communities that give these birds of a feather places to flock together.

Demand more from media

Big Media has done a nice job adapting in the Long Tail environment -- editorially. For example, news sites regularly link to blog posts, photos or videos uploaded by citizens. However, where they're just getting started is in the sales side of the house. The Washington Post took a big step recently when it launched a blog ad network. Demand that your media partners help you find ways to build your brand through niches like the Post does.

Tags: longtail, media, niches

Gawker Readies "Idolator" Music Blog

Blogebrity has he scoop on Gawker Media's forthcoming music blog. It's called Idolator and will launch within the next couple of weeks.

links for 2006-08-29

• Beet.TV: Online Video Allows PR Pros to Bypass Media, Says PR Week Editor Keith O'Brien
  In this interview with Beet.TV, Keith talks about how technology is enhancing the role of public relations pros within organizations
  (tags: PR video)
• Yahoo! Search blog: Local and Maps Update on Flickr and Upcoming
  Yahoo rolls out geo-tagging and more on Flickr.
  (tags: flickr locationbasedservices photos geotagging yahoo)
• Top Web Apps in Turkey
  (tags: Asia Europe Web2.0)
• KnowHR Blog » Blog Archive » Top 10 Best Presentations Ever
  (tags: presentations)

If Hidden Messages Persist, Advertising is Toast

Joseph Turow, Professor and Associate Dean for Graduate Studies at U Penn's Annenberg School for Communication, writing in The Boston Globe does a nice job of rounding up how advertising is changing. "Today's new media technologies allow consumers to talk back -- and tune out," he wrote.

So, what's the advertising industry doing to adapt? Well some are embedding hidden messages everywhere to make it harder for people to them tune out. These black hats are giving the rest of us a black eye with the public.

If these nefarious practices continue, over time advertising will erode to dust. The reason is that the ante will be upped. Consumers will be more motivated than ever to tune out ads. The solution - and I am partial here - is moving to having more open dialogues with constituents, warts and all.

This is why I think PR is well suited to helping clients navigate the new media landscape. We have always traded in uncertainties and in honest feedback. Leaders in the advertising community - not just the Word of Mouth Marketing Association - need to get more aggressive in weeding out the worst practices and highlighting the best. Otherwise, the sneakiness will continue.

Even in Albuquerque Blogs Help Reporters

With 494,000 residents Albuquerque, New Mexico is the 18th largest city in the US. You wouldn't think there would be an influential network of local bloggers in Albuquerque (Tech blogger Marc Orchant excluded). Nevertheless, the local bloggers there are helping reporters do their jobs better, one columnist says. Even better, they're changing the newspaper's coverage for the better.

Turn Your iPod into the Ultimate PowerPoint Accessory

This is the second in my series of posts on various gear that I find useful.

Many readers of this blog work in PR or marketing or for Web 2.0 related start-ups. This means you spend a lot of time preparing presentations in either Microsoft PowerPoint or Apple's Keynote. What's more, you probably also invest hours rehearsing and traveling to and from various meetings. Oh and if I were a betting man I'd say you carry an iPod. Well, whether you are on Windows or Mac with a few simple steps you can turn your iPod (even an older one) into the ultimate PowerPoint accessory. I am going to focus on PowerPoint here since it's what most people use. The process is similar for Keynote.

Getting Your Preso on Your iPod

First, you need to get your PowerPoint presentation on to your iPod. This is a snap. Head on over to ZappTek and download iPresent It. It's now available on both Windows and Mac (It was previously only available for Macs). iPresent It will take any PowerPoint or PDF file and convert it into a series of images that can be viewed as a slideshow on an iPod. It supports file tracking so you can easily update your slideshows whenever you make changes to a presentation. I have been testing the software and it works perfectly. iPresent It runs $17.95. Apple explains how to get these images on your iPod.

Using Your iPod to Rehearse

Now that you have your presentation on your iPod you need to rehearse. The iPod has everything you need to rehearse while you're on the go. This works best on either the latest fifth generation iPod or on the iPod Nano (though it's hard to see slide text on the latter). Simply navigate to the Stopwatch feature on your iPod and start the timer. Then, while the timer is still running navigate back to the Photos menu on your iPod, find your slide show and click it. You can run through the slides one by one or even run it as a slideshow complete with slide-to-slide builds. You can even keep music running in the background while you rehearse.

Hooking Your iPod Up to a Projector

Last but not least, it's actually possible to connect your iPod to a projector or a TV and run your presentation right off the device. I would test this out on different projectors before flying sans computer. This won't work with the iPod Nano. You also need either the Apple AV Connection Kit or their AV Cable to hook your iPod up to your projector. Presentation Zen (one of my favorite blogs) shows how nicely this works.

That's all there is to turing your iPod into the ultimate PowerPoint accessory.

Tags: ipod, powerpoint

links for 2006-08-28

• American Express® RSS Feeds
  Receive up-to-date info from several different American Express services.
  (tags: finance financialservices RSS Amex)
• WikiCharts — Top 100 — 08/2006
  This tool shows the articles from the English Wikipedia that are viewed most.
  (tags: Wikipedia wikis)
• TechMan: TechTV alumni back with a vengeance as podcasters
  (tags: podcasting)
• ThinkGeek :: Yoda Plush Backpack
  I gotta get me one of these.
  (tags: starwars yoda)
• Web site chronicles N.Y. conversations - Yahoo! News
  AP profiles Overheard in New York
  (tags: blogs)
• Widgify
  A new blog on widgets! Coolio.
  (tags: widgets blogs pictureinpicturemarketing)
• Box.net/lite - Share files on facebook notes, myspace, blogs, and more
  Add a photo, song, document, video, or file into your facebook notes, myspace, or blog.
  (tags: storage photos blogs facebook box.net myspace video)

Dear Google, Clean Up Google News

Google is still playing it very inconsistently when it comes to how it decides what blogs get indexed in Google News and what doesn't. In addition, they're also now inadvertently scooping up forum content from mainstream sites. This, mind you, is par for the course for a rare Google product that is actually out of beta.

I have blogged about this issue several times now. And Google, to their credit, promised to be more forthcoming. However, that was three months ago and we've seen little movement since. Yahoo needs to follow the same path now that they have removed most blogs from their news search engine. What's the criteria? What cuts the mustard and what doesn't? C'mon gang. Follow Topix's model. (By the way, Topix is also exemplary in their handling of press releases on topic pages. They're separated. See lower right of this page.)

Here's the latest example of Google News' double standard when it comes to non-professional content. On my personalized page tonight I saw links to this forum post on CNET Reviews. (See image below.) Google's gotta come clean on what's news and Yahoo News needs to follow too now that it's more like Google.