Micro Persuasion

A Podcast Chat with For Immediate Release

Earlier today I spoke with Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson from the For Immediate Release podcast. We discussed ethics; the social media press release and Edelman Storycrafter; the death of the page view; the value of widgets; perspectives on blogging; Edelman/NewsGator Hosted Conversations and conversational advertising; the role of Second Life for PR; the future of video; some predictions for 2007; advice for PR pros. Download the MP3.

Tom Raftery Interviews Me for a Podcast

I spent some time yesterday talking with Tom Raftery from Ireland via Skype and he has posted the podcast on his blog site (click the play icon to hear the show or download the MP3). If you're not listening to Tom's podcast, start. He has had some great guests on his show, including Robert Scoble and Shel Israel. Full show notes are posted after the jump.

Across the Sound Podcast #11

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Please note that our next podcast will run the week of December 5.

Length: 51:34
Download the mp3 or just click the play icon at left to stream it now.

Introduction/Podbits (00:32)

* We receive our first promo from the Cubicle Escape podcast on the brain dump trivia competition
* Rob Sample says our audio quality stinks
* Steve mulls a video podcast
* Jeff Caylor's 10 Holiday Spirit Hacks
* More email feedback

What We're Blogging About (19:42)
* Steve: splog solution is economic, Google services for publishers
* Joseph: online sold out, TypePad service

Theme of the Week: MSM Why Can or Why Can't They Get It (29:30)

Winners and Losers (39:53)
Joe: Democrats (winner), six broadcast networks (loser)
Steve: Mark Cuban (winner), Audible (loser)

Significant Mentions: Screencasts Online, Andy Wibbels, John Udell, the silent podcast, Frappr, Die Hard, Shayne Bowman, cinecast, SNL skit on Steve Jobs and the  spammies, Mommycast, Email Girl Talk, Dan Gillmor, We the Media, Terry Heaton, Rex Hammock.

Across the Sound Podcast 10

Length: 50:48 (Download the mp3 )

00:33 - Podbits

• Joe buys an iDog, Steve's iDog is dead (IceRocket trend search)
• Question from Mike Maxwell on traffic to a podcast blog and whether a podcast blog is necessary
• Audio snippet from the Lockjaw Radio podcast asking how we market our podcast
• Audio comment from David Jones on who should be company's the Chief Conversation Officer

22:22 - What We're Blogging About

• Steve: blogvertising, hacks
• Joe: open source presentations, UNM2PMN

We're skipping the theme of the week this week.
Next week's theme: MSM - why can or why can't they get it

42:30 - Winners and Losers

• Jaffe: Google (loser), David Ogilvy (winner)
• Steve: CEOs (losers), BlogAds (winner)

Mentions: M Show, Chris Mcyntre, Podcast Alley, David Hague, Waxmail, Sony DRM crisis, Audi blogvertising campaign, Garr Reynolds, Presentation Zen post on Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, Apple Keynote, Jackie Huba, 43 Things, 43 Folders, GTD,  David Allen, Marc Orchant, Buzz Bruggeman, ActiveWords, Wiley Publishing, Post Secret, Yoda dashboard widget, Henry Copeland, Tom Messner.

Across the Sound Podcast #9

Length: 47:40
Download the mp3

Introduction / Podbits (00:16)
* Steve discusses his diagnosis with skin cancer and the impetus for the new skin cancer blog
* Joe brings up  Steve's appearance on CNBC with Dan Lyons, the author of the Forbes cover slam story on blogs
* John Keehler's comment re. his father's reaction to watching Lyons on CNN
* Audio comment from the M Show reacting to Jaffe's smack comments
* Nielsen commercial ratings

What We're Blogging About (18:00)

* Steve: RSS is plumbing
* Joe: The Apprentice

Theme of the Week: The Power of Us (21:41)

* Joe talks about the Borg
* Steve discusses BusinessWeek recent cover story - The Power of Us; cites Lego as an example
* Sound bite: "The power of us is about affecting change"; talks about his son's experience
* Next week's theme: MSM - why can or can't they get it?

Winners and Losers of the Week (37:00)
Joe: Burger King (winner), Infinity Broadcasting (loser)

Steve: Wikipedia (winner), Microsoft (loser)

Steve and Joe discuss the optimal ATS podcast length.

Mentions: Thoma Gobay, Steve Hall from Adrants, American Copyrighter, Pee Wee Herman, Mr. Smithers, Neville Hobson, Blogging Enterprise conference, The Power of Many blog, The Community Guy, Andrew Denny, Jeff Jarvis, Dell, Terry Heaton, Nicholi Frank, Gary Cohen, Wisdom of Crowds, The Jarvis Effect, 43 Things, Digg, Alexa, Windows Live, Office Live, TechCrunch, Google, James Cherkoff.

Across the Sound Podcast #6

Here's this week's podcast from me and my co-host Joseph Jaffe.

45 minutes, 33 seconds (mp3 direct link)

00:17 Introduction
- We're on Podcast Alley, thanks Chris!
- Joe gives our vital statistics, says he won't rest until ATS is #1. Steve groans but then again tells people to vote for us on Yahoo.

05:09 Podbits
- Joe gets a Staples Easy Button in the mail. Woo hoo!
- Steve comments on how hard it is to monitor podcast content.
- Feedback: Tac Anderson, Jeff Risely, Joe/Steve say they've lost the battle with email, Sallie Goetch on when is a podcast a podcast, Jeff calls out Seth Godin over his lack of comments

19:25 What We're Blogging About
-Steve: gada.be and Yahoo blog search
Joe: Halloween is a huge marketing event
(Steve is going as Joseph Jaffe for Halloween, Joe is too big for Halloween)

26:20 - Theme of the Week: iPod TV
- Joe comments on his experience buying a TV show online
- Steve says this is the beginning, but where's the content? This is the consumer's opportunity to take the lead in vidcasts before the big boys
- What is the cost of being an early adopter? Please send us your comments on this topic.
- Next week's theme: citizen marketing

42:04 - Winners and Losers
- Steve: consumers are winners, big media is a loser
- Joseph: Apple/Disney is a winner and a loser

Mentions: Adam Curry, Manager Tools podcast, Meredith Topalanchik, Alan Taylor Communications, Entrepreneur Magazine, wsRadio, Replay Radio, Shel Holtz, Neville Hobson, BlogOn, Fast Company, Six Apart/TypePad, Wordpress, Technorati, Chris Pirillo, Burger King, KFC, PETA, Eric Rice, Rocketboom, Jeff Jarvis, Jake Jarvis, TiVo.

Across the Sound Podcast #5

Show length: 46:51 (mp3)

00:04 - Introduction/Podbits
* Joe gets an iPod nano
* What a busy week between terrorists, AOL/Weblogs Inc.
* Steve's blog is worth $4.2M - woo hoo!
* Joe's book will  be in Korean (we know you can't wait)
* We digress into sports (bear with us)
* Discussion of the feedback re. the length of the podcast/Steve says to keep it inside the length of a Gilligan, skipping individual shows and whether we should just give up the podcast altogether (we won't)
* Vote for us on Podcast Alley (also on Yahoo! Podcasts too!)

17:25 - What We're Blogging About
* Steve: Going the Distance - the last 25%
* Joe: My Name is Earl in HD

29:00 - Theme of the Week: Open Source Marketing
* Interview with Dave Chase

39:40 - Winners and Losers
* Joe: Staples (winner), people who whined about AOL/Weblogs Inc. (losers)
* Steve: The PGA (winner), RSS (loser)

Mentions: Barkley Evergreen Partners, iPod Subway Maps, RSS feeds on the iPod (via Pod2Go), Rafat Ali, Rob Usdin, Gilligan's Island, Peter Brady, Denise Wakeman, Sebastian Kiel, Tony Perkins, Edelman survey, James Cherkoff's ChangeThis manifesto, Mozilla/Firefox New York Times ad, Sugarshots, Vespa, Pennsylvania Tourism, Michelle Wie article in Fortune, Yahoo study on RSS, Dell ads showing up in Jeff Jarvis' feed, Eric Rice, Yankees win!

Across the Sound - Podcast #4

Recorded Sunday, October 2, 2005 (MP3 download)

Length: 40 minutes, 35 seconds

Theme Music: That Podcast Song by Cruisebox

Feedback: acrossthesound@gmail.com or dial 1-360-365-9834 and leave a voicemail.

00:17 - Introduction, Joe/Steve on: The technical difficulties If a show is missed, does it need to be make-up? How long should the optimal podcast be? Should a podcast be timed to coincide with the average commute? PSF podcast survey. Joe's book will be coming out in Russian and Portuguese. Joe thanks his Mother-in-Law for listening. Lego, yet again!

09:54 - Audio Feedback: Richard Gatarski from Sweden asks for full RSS posts.

13:41 - What We're Blogging About: AJAX & Web 2.0 (Steve), consumer outcry over iPod nano defects (Joe)

21:31 - Theme of the Week: Transparency Part II

• More on Richard Gatarski's comments
• Johnnie Moore's audio comment re. transparency and Hugh Macleod
• Council of PR Firms op-ed in PR Week re. their Disclosure Guidelines for blogging, Word of Mouth, video news releases and audio news releases
• Tim Keil's comments
• Luke Armour's comments
• James Cherkoff's comments
• Hello World blog post on how movies should be subsidized based on product placement
• Next week's theme is Open Source Marketing (thanks Dave Chase!)

32:54 - Winners and Losers

• Joe: Gap (Winner), Linda Tischler at the Fast Company blog - Joe's post (Loser)
• Steve: small publishers using Google Adsense (Winner), Advertising Weak (Loser)

Mentions: HotRecorer, Skype, WireTapPro, Gizmo Project, Eric Schwartzman, Shel Holz, Neville Hobson, Joe Namath (book), GroundHog Day (movie), FlawedMusicPlayer.com, iPod's Dirty Secret, New York Times article on product placement, Rob Usdin, Advertising Week parade.

Eric Schwartzman Interviews Me

Eric Schwartzman from the Spinfluencer podcast and I recently sat down to talk about blogs and PR and much more. You can read the full podcast show notes here. (Link to the 50-minute MP3 file)

Across the Sound Podcast #3

Recorded Sunday September 18

49 minutes, 5 seconds (MP3 download)

Theme Music: That Podcast Song by Crusiebox

Audio feedback: acrossthesound@gmail.com or dial 1-360-365-9834 and leave a voicemail.

(Note - We are joined by a special guest for much of the show - a very noisy Long Island cricket! Apologies.)

00:17 - Introduction/Listener Feedback: Lego/Legos. Alan Jenkins' on Lego/Blogging for "Benjamins," Seth Godin's three kinds of bloggers; Adam Curry plugs our show and his comments on Soundvertising
on Daily Source Code; anonymous blogging/mini-Microsoft, Robert Scoble, moodcasts, Apple and iPodcast and more

15:30 - What We're Blogging About: Homemade HP Ad (Steve), CGC Takes One in the Gut (Joe), Blog Search Shootout (Steve), 30 Seconds on American Idol going for $705,000 (Joe)

30:50 - Theme of the Week/Transparency (Thanks Gary Cruze)

40:31 - Ask the Podders: Andrew Denny (our fan of the week!) asks about "Lighter Blogging Ahead," Nino Z asks about guests hosts

43:15 - Winners and Losers
Joe: Winner - Coke; Loser - Sprint/Nextel (Steve mentions that Sprint bought him dinner this week - oops!)
Steve: Winner - Skype; Loser - The New York Times for charging for content

47:00 - Wrap-up, Go Jets!

Across the Sound Podcast #2

Joseph Jaffe and I have posted our second Across the Sound podcast.

Recorded Saturday, September 10
45 minutes, 15 seconds (Download the MP3 )
Audio feedback: acrossthesound@gmail.com or dial 1-360-365-9834 and leave a voicemail.

Theme Music: That Podcast Song by Cruisebox

Show Notes:

00:18 - Introduction: FedEx Furniture yet again, including Andrew Denny's feedback

03:30 - Feedback: Audio comments (our first) from Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson from For Immediate Release and Jeremy Carnell

05:33 - What We're Blogging About: Truth in Advertising (Joe), Wikipedia's Rising Influence (Steve), Consumer-Generated Gap Ad (Joe), Music Mashups (Steve)

20:33 - Theme of the Week: Branded Entertainment/Product Placement (Advertising Age article)

29:00 - Ask the Podders: Nike consumer generated music, how we produce our podcast, is Jaffe buying Rubel or Google?, other questions

36:21 - Winners and Loosers: Steve - Ad Council is a winner for their Hurricane Katrina PSAs for podcasters, everyone trying to break tech news in an all Apple news week is a loser; Joe - NBC is a winner, Lego or is that Legos is a loser.

People/Brands Mentioned: Dove Soap Campaign for Real Beauty, Adam Curry, Senseo, Mashuptown/Muppets Mix, Public Relations Ramble blog, Magna Global, Nike, Kevin Smokeler, JD Lasica, Gizmo Project, WireTap  Pro, GarageBand, FeedBurner, Skype, HotRecorder, Podcasting Hacks, Blake Barbera (the Tiger Woods of PR), Horn Group, Jeremy Pepper, iPod Nano, Kauffman Foundation.

Introducing The Micro Persuasion Podcast

From time to time, some of my readers have asked me to share more of my opinions on the intersection between PR/marketing and RSS and blogs. With that in mind - tada - I present the very first installment of The Micro Persuasion Podcast (4MB MP3 file). If you subscribe to my FeedBurner feed in your podcatcher, you should automatically get future podcasts - which will come on an irregular schedule.

This is the first in a series of occasional Micro Persuasion podcasts. Unlike the majority of my blog postings, my podcast is all opinion. I plan to keep these short. If you have feedback, please do let me know. Right now this is a basic spoken word podcast but as I learn more about podcasting, I may dabble in fancy music intros.

During the first eight minutes of this 12-minute podcast I address the future impact RSS will have on marketing, especially as users start subscribing to feeds. With the online metaphor evolving from browse and search to browse, search AND subscribe, I believe that RSS will make push marketing even more important. In particular, I discuss: how marketers using RSS (like Purina) will strike big marketing deals with RSS aggregators (like Yahoo) to get more people pulling their feeds; why Craig's List might one day get into news aggregation and why RSS coupons are a big opportunity for a budding entrepreneur.

In the remaining four minutes I weigh in on your reactions to two of my recent posts - one on press releases and another on Dell. I also explain why I won't play the blogosphere alphabet game any more. (Ed Bott, Tom Murphy, and Marc Orchant, be sure to listen in. Jeremy Pepper - you too, but I don't need to tell you. I know you'll be there.)

Happy Fourth everyone!