Drew B's take on tech PR

Take part in the biggest blog in history

This place is telling us all to blog this Tuesday. Why not join in?

via Linkbunnies

LEWIS wins Second Life's global PR campaign

I'm massively pleased to say that LEWIS PR has taken on the global PR business for Second Life. The full announcement is here.

xp LEWIS360

links for 2006-10-10

• Telegraph | YouTube UK audience soars
  What does Google want from YouTube? Revenue? Or just that that noone else can snap it up?
• Searches for "Bebo" show more growth to come in social networks
  Heather Hopkins of Hitwise correctly predicted that Bebo would overtake MySpace as the number one social network in the UK based in part on the growing number of people searching for "Bebo".
• Social networking sites swarm into Hitwise's Top 20 UK brands
  Perhaps the most striking feature of this research is the number of social networking sites that have made it into the list compared to 12 months ago - with the highest entry at number two coming from Bebo.

Nano Second Life invaders

Boing Boing sez: A "griefer" -- person who disrupts video-games -- is attacking the online world Second Life with self-replicating "grey goo" that is melting down the Second Life servers. "Grey goo" is shorthand for an apocalyptic nano-gone-wrong scenario wherein nanoassemblers replicate so profligately that they reduce the world to slurry.

Urgh

Google confirms its purchase of YouTube for $1.65bn

I see Michael Arrington has confirmed for us that Google has indeed acquired YouTube. That's confirmed by Google here on their press office. $1.65bn.

Blogusiasm or blogorrhoea?

Blogusiasm or blogorrhoea? Or should I say, long or short?

Wolfman has said I'm blogusiastic. I say he has blogorrhoea. His posts are so long I get lost half way through. I wonder, what do people prefer. Long or short?

Second Life becoming the biggest web brand

The Guardian says today, "after the success of MySpace, Bebo and Youtube, Second Life is fast becoming the hottest thing on the Web." This two-page feature on Second Life sees veteran editor Vic Keegan take on the persona of Victor Vezina (and he looks pretty much like the real thing). This week we also see a six-page feature in Wired on Second Life (you'll have to wait a while for the online version. And Sun Microsystems has just announced it's going to be holding press conferences in Second Life. Two weeks back BBC Breakfast did a special feature on Second Life. It certainly has the media's attention.

I'm looking forward to seeing what will happen when it really takes off and more communities, businesses and, well, people I know, basically, get on there, and we can see what happens when a critical mass hits a new kind of online platform like this.

slowly, slowly scary monkey

These videos are always funnier when it's someone you know.

Google, the Tory PR puppetmaster, and Web 2.0's political influence

Reading today's Times, I tore out and kept an article on the new PR emperor, Steve Hilton. Steve is the "secretive guru behind the new Dave project". He is David Cameron the probable future Prime Minister's top PR advisor. He's the "mastermind behind the party's strategy for changing its image" and "his influence can be seen in [strategies such as] Cameron's webcasting" amongst other moves to make the party more appealing. His annual salary is £276,000 according to the Sunday Times. He keeps a very, very low profile. And here's the interesting bit that The Times missed. Steve's girlfriend Rachel Whetstone is head of Google's European PR. Here's what PR Week says about Rachel.

[update: I had dinner with Rachel Whetstone recently and she's razor-sharp and thoroughly nice company]

So if you, like a few people I spoke to, wondered how and why the CEO of Google was at the Conservative party conference this week, now you know.

Watch Google, Steve and Rachel closely. I think we will see a shift in how the web influences politics in a big way in the next year.

The Times: Secretive guru behind the new Dave Project

Sunday Times: Power couple behind the new Tory throne

PR Week: Profile - Rachel Whetstone, Google

Calculating the ROI on corporate blogging

Dan Farber at ZDNet has written an article here about the creation of a blogging ROI framework by Forrester analyst Charlene Li, whose new piece of work is on this topic. It's all good, common sense stuff, but will, I'm sure, educate more firms as to the benefits and drawbacks of a prospective social media campaign.