Drew B's take on tech PR

TV 2.0 on its way

Is TV 2.0 on its way? Or in other words, might we be seeing broadband TV with shows that are tagged, that you can watch in any order based on keywords you're into, or even based on what your mates or what famous people into? Steve Rubel thinks so.

Tagging has got to be one of the best things about the social web. It lets you describe your stuff with one word. Simple. It's interesting to see what people are searching for on Technorati - tags like thursday thirteen, bush, war, iran and sex. Then other top search terms include MySpace (of course!) Sxsw, opel corsa problema, American Idol, Gmail, iPod, Amazon S3, Cpe, VoIP, Katherine Harris, Bukit Batok video. I'm not sure why some of these searches are so popular, and I'm not sure if the fact that I'm using these tags myself means that I'll get all sorts of wierd visits to my blog. I'll stop short of tagging my post with stuff that Clogger uses, the dirty beggar. But tagging gets the thumbs up from me.

Technorati Tags: TV 2.0, Tags, Tagging, Social Web

How to hack a lift

How to hack a lift (elevator) so it only stops on the floor you want it to. Sweet.

Technorati Tags: elevator hack, lift hack

6,000 emails a week and counting

Which is better, no digital information or lots of it? How about if you're a senior boss at a big company? This article in Fortune profiles seven big business bosses, including Starbucks CEO Howard Shultz, and Google Search Vice President Marissa Mayer. I think it's fascinating seeing how these guys work. Here's a summary:

Starbucks
Early morning status report by voicemail
Three daily newspapers
No emails
25 site visits a week
Secret weapon... coffee. No shit.

Google
800 emails a day
Wireless laptop or Blackberry on constantly
14-hour email sessions on weekends
Digital task list
Secret weapon... information overload. Again, no shit.

I suppose this should be obvious from an old-school CEO, but I just can't imagine it - Starbucks' boss Shultz works without email! He gets his status reports on voicemail and dashboards, and manages through constant calls and site visits. Google's Mayer on the other hand 'revels in information', with constant wifi up and running, marathon email sessions on weekends, and around 6,000 emails a week!? WTF! Horses for courses of course.

Bloggers vs MySpace

Renaissance Chambara is pontificating about blogging's impact on public relations. He takes into account Tom Foremski's recent rant, and reflects on what I pointed out, that blogs have already been overtaken, well lapped in fact, by Myspace (with over 63 million members right now). Bloggers keep harping on about how much of a big deal they are, but the media doesn't know what's hit it yet.

I totally agree with RC. This massive MySpace generation is not a demographic of information workers, like us bloggers. MySpacers are mostly school kids, first jobbers, travellers, or they're at Uni. So Give it a few years and the media will really feel the pinch.

We Smirch the new memetracker

Memetrackers, or 'automatic dirt diggers', are the new big thing. These are the sites that allow you to see what's being talked about the most in blogs, forums and in breaking news, before anyone else in the office knows about it. For PR, you can see what's big, often before it breaks in the press.

And memetrackers are not longer just for geeks. Memeorandum, the tech and politics news tracker, has launched We Smirch, a memetracker for tabloidy gossip. (Via Steve Rubel)

I think memetrackers will be the new way we get news and gossip in the future. For the wired generation it's quicker, broader and more relevant than mainstream media and news websites.

Business 2.0 magazine's blog get's it about how business blogs need to be a bit off topic and personal now and again. The editor Eric Schonfeld just posted this photo, saying it's his pic of the day. Wish I was there too.

CIO at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein starts blogging

I can distinctively remember two features in The FT about this guy, JP Rangaswami, the CIO at investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein. I think the first feature I remember was early last year. The second was last week, and both were about his progressive work at his bank. He's into wikis, blogs and RSS to make things easier for his staff. Well David Tebbutt has spotted that JP has started blogging. It's called 'Confused of Calcutta' and it's not your typical corporate blog - very casual look and feel. Must read me too!

How everyone is talkng about Walmart blogging and Edelman

CNBC's breakfast show,  SquawkBox, interviewed US PR blogger Shel Holtz today (story here)  on the topic of Walmart's blogger relations programme which was in the New York Times and The Financial Times this week. Shel was asked, as a blogging expert, his opinions on what Walmart is doing to influence public opinion through blogs, and how this differs to traditional PR. He was asked about General Motors and Boeing blogging too, and he talked about how we'll start seeing more corporate blogging happening soon.

Shel's review of the interview is worth a read, especially for his points on ethics. Watch out for his weekly podcast with Neville Hobson this week as the CNBC and Walmart issues will no doubt be discussed.

Walmart is hiring bloggers to shape public opinion in a PR campaign - FT gets podcasting

Leading story on Financial Times website FT.com is that Walmart is hiring bloggers to shape public opinion in a PR campaign.

Also on the front cover of this morning's issue is news that the FT has launched a new daily podcast - The Lex Podcast.

MySpace twice the size of the blogosphere

We PR folk in the blogosphere like to talk about the impact of blogging on our profession and its effect on corporate communications. But there are a few elephants in this room. One of those elephants is MySpace.

Here's something bloggers probably didn't know - MySpace has twice as many members as the entire blogosphere put together. And MySpace's recent additions of RSS and podcasting, represents a huge impact on word of mouth marketing. And yet you barely see it talked about by PR firms in their blogs.

PR firms with clients whose products bought by the MySpace generation should be MySpacing, not just blogging. I'm just not seeing much of it from the inside.

Then there's the impact MySpace has on employee relations. MySpace is much edgier than the blogosphere. It's chat is much more candid. And so staff are being fired for their MySpace musings. It's a growing concern for confused bosses.

Here's a few articles of interest on the topic of MySpace. And no, Im not giving out my MySpace url!