Drew B's take on tech PR

YouTube losing its cool - long live talking cats

Is YouTube losing its cool? Reports of the site signing deals with Good Morning America, Cingular and NBC... the increasing 'gentrification' of the site and looming copyright police (remember Napster?) could perhaps signal an end to the site's huge following. When YouTube becomes an outlet for pro virals, it might well lose its hip, edgy feel that brought social media users flocking. Michael Arrington has put forward his argument, and the 30-odd comments take it a step further. The monetisation of YouTube will be its downfall, people are a saying.

Well sod that. Silky just asked me to tell the world my top five YouTube Gold. And I love YouTube so why wouldn't I do that! (note my leaning towards animals, bruising and Borat!)

In reverse order, and with a showcase for number one:

5. Everything BORAT!
4. Nasty rugby tackles
3. The biggest fight comeback in history (if only I knew what kind of crazy fight this was)
2. The angry yet confused dog, which thinks its own hind leg is an intruder
1. The talking cats

And a special mention to Daniel Chesterfield whose YouTube clip is hilarious (he hangs out near moving objects like car park barriers and sliding doors then pretends he's a magician opening them with sorcery). Worth watching.
Wondering whether Ged, James, Jonny, Simon and Ed will want to join in too?
Memetag: YouTube chart

Tories doing social networking site of their own

Apparently the Conservatives are going to be launching a new website that's based on social networking. This is according to an article in Third Sector and Marketing magazines, says Simon Collister. Nice spot Simon.

Canada's top 50 PR bloggers

I never realised the media blogging community in Canada was so big! Here's a top 50 media bloggers, courtest of a link from Ed Lee.

links for 2006-09-20

• Get your own tiny Flickr cards - Web 2.0 turns dead tree
  Start-up Moo.com is offering to print 100 business cards with your Flickr photos on the back, using a neat online interface. All for $20.

links for 2006-09-19

• Political blogging special: lists of the top political bloggers
  Iain Dale's Diary has an exclusive - a guide to UK's top 100 political blogs. Starting with the top 100 blogs across all parties.
• The Top 100 Conservative Blogs
• The Top 100 Labour Blogs
• The Top 100 Liberal Democrat Blogs
• The Top 100 Non Aligned Political Blogs

Probably the least insightful article on blogging ever written

Today I read the most hilarious article on PR and blogging I've ever laid my eyes on. What's a shame is that it was published in The Guardian, the most blogger-friendly of all newspapers. The Guardian is crammed full of experts who really know their stuff when it comes to blogging, like Bobbie, Charles, Emily and a lot of the people on Comment is Free. The Guardian has taken some time to hire a bunch of cracking journalists and bloggers, and they know their stuff when it comes to online.

But this article made me cringe. My favourite parts of the article are as follows:

1. "Nearly all successful companies have identified online as an essential part of their marketing mix." - As you can tell, the whole piece is crammed with stats.
2. "[Online is] exactly the same as offline, it's simply online." - That is exactly the same.
3. "Companies ignore the web at their peril." - And watch out for the millenium bug too.

It just looks like something that was written years ago. Actually stuff written years ago (like this from PR Week) reads more up to date.

Anyone find it useful?

The Sun goes Web 2.0

Tabliod rag The Sun has added blogs, RSS feeds, podcasts and oodles more stuff in a website revamp. Antony Mayfield has more in a thorough online review here.

How to rip off for better buzz

In a client meeting last week I saw the Apple vs Mac comparison in human form thingy for the first time. You know, that ad where the Microsoft person is a square, and the Mac person is street. Then, on the Pronet Advertising blog I see that a rip off has made it into the Digg, del.icio.us and Techmeme homepages. Go take a look - it's a 'how to dress like a Mac' mock-up. Shows just how a good rip off and how a 'how to' can get blog buzz.

Business Week on social networks

The latest in a series on CEO guides to technology in Business Week, the magazine has published a piece on social networks. It's a great article that explores all the main business reasons for using social networking, from hunting for clients, to luring ex staff back to your fold.

Many companies are turning to social networks and related technology to stay in touch with former employees. Consulting firm Deloitte strives to maintain ties with ex-workers and has had a formal alumni-relations program for years. It bolstered those efforts earlier this year, tapping business networking services provider SelectMinds to launch an online alumni network.

Drew writing for TechCrunch

If you read TechCrunch you may have seen this already... I'm going to be writing articles for TechCrunch UK on topics in the UK tech market, startups and social media. And my first article was published today, on social bookmarking.

TechCrunch is a massive force in the social media space (ranked no.6 in the Technorati top 100 I believe) so It's great to be working with them. In case you hadn't seen the UK site, its got a great events section, and the articles all spot on for a techy blogger media type like me. Its so rare to get a country focus in the market you follow. Hope you subscribe! :-)