Cymfony's Influence 2.0

Finding Blogs that Count

The WSJ had an interesting article on May 26 where the author, Carl Bialik, 'The Numbers Guy', explored several techniques for counting the number of blogs worldwide. He consulted numerous blog search companies such as Technorati as well as popular blog sites including The Truth Laid Bear to hear different perspectives on blog counting, ranking and popularity. Depending on the counting approach involved, there could be anywhere from 30 to 100 million blogs already created. There is no perfect method to determine the real number.

The most important point is that the actual number of blogs isn't all that meaningful, but finding blogs that count is very important.

A quality control manager may only need to find a relatively small sample set of product owners discussing issues in order to determine if there are new problems with a particular product that haven't bubbled up through a company's CRM system or channel partners yet.

If a marketer is more interesting in emerging trends they may need to look at a larger sample set over a longer period of time to understand shifting sentiment or variances in discussion on a particular topic. But even in the case of trend analysis, the number of blogs that are meaningful to assess could be counted in the hundreds rather than in the millions.

It's important to focus on a representative set of blogs that reflect the audience that you are trying to communicate to or gain knowledge from. Rather than worrying about how many millions of blogs there might be, it's important to identify a large enough sample set across the many millions of blogs to find the hundreds of blogs every day that are discussing the companies, products, people and issues in your space.

PBS Kids Endorses Blogs

We had PBS Kids on over this long holiday weekend.  And although my 17 month old daughter is too young to understand some of the shows on the local GBH station, it serves as a solid educational backdrop on a rainy day (hey, at least I know she is not watching Sponge Bob, yet....)  Postcards from Buster, the spin off from Arthur, came on as I was checking email and she was running around the room.  Why am I writing about this?  Well to my amazement the episode was about Buster's blog!  Yup, they even explained the meaning of a blog and how Buster keeps track of his travels.  Two things immediately came to mind 1.)  If blogs are being introduced to preschoolers (and their mom's) then they are certainly here to stay for a while (regardless of the recent backlash) and 2.) when is it too young to start a blog?

Mind you I don't think my 17 month old is the target audience for this particular show (it probably came on after Teletubbies or something).  But seriously, when I first heard the blog mention I just smiled.  Talk about blogging going mainstream.

I'm honestly not sure what the answer is for age appropriate blogging.  But I do have to say hats off to PBS Kids and Postcards from Buster for using blogs as a way to encourage cultural awareness and English language learning.   

Blog Bits - Week of May 23rd

According to PaidContent.org, The Wall Street Journal Online has started selectively opening up a few of their stories to bloggers in order to get more linkage and showcase their content.  On the flip side, The New York Times announced that they plan to start charging for more of its current mostly free online content.  Incidentally, Steve Rubel of Micro Persuasion recently highlighted a prediction raised by Peter Shankman, creator of PR Differently.  Shankman predicts, “The second half of 2007 is when we will witness the death of the first ‘big’ newspaper from the convergence of blogs, podcasts, and the like”  2007 seems a bit too soon for that but maybe the buzz will inspire The NY Times to follow WJS’s lead. 

Online voting is open for MarketingSherpa’s Best Blog of 2005 award.  The nominees for Blogs in PR include:  A PR Guru’s Musing, Active Voice, Beyond PR, Media Guerilla, Musings from Pop! Public Relations, PR Machine and Strategic Public Relations.  Not to be taken as a hint, but voters can also add blog sites as a write-in vote if your favorite blog was not included. 

PRWeek’s Marketing Management Survey contained some highlights about blogs this year.  One notable quote,

“Fragmentation due to the deterioration of traditional media is an issue that weighs on marketers’ minds more heavily than most others....Most have made efforts to capitalize on the proven power of buzz and word of mouth, but the danger with such naturally occurring phenomena as these is that they become impotent if they’re overpackaged by clumsy marketers. This is where blogs fit in, according to many. Provided they’re pure and authentic, they can allow an unadulterated and pure representation of a brand that interacts with an audience in real time”.

Interest-based social networking

I'm probably not supposed to say this since I work for a company that's trying to draw attention to the importance of blogging, but I'll say it anyways: I'm bored with blogs.

Don't get me wrong--I still believe the blog is an essential medium of communication that needs to be taken seriously by anyone who wants to engage with people in our society. However, in the end, it's just another medium, along with radio, television, newspapers, magazines, etc., to be used to communicate with the masses. I think it's legitimate to say that blogs should be treated with the same level of respect as other forms of mass communication but to say that it is significantly more important seems like a bit of a reach.

The technology that I've been fascinated with lately is this thing that I'll call "interest-based social networking". Some examples of websites I'm referring to are Flickr, Upcoming.org, and Meetup.com (I would be very interested to know about other sites that fit into this category). These are sites where people go to share photographs and talk about them (Flickr) or where people go to find out about events in their area and even post their own events (Upcoming.org). They meld together elements of interest-focused sites (e.g. Webshots, Pollstar) and social networking sites (e.g. Friendster, Orkut) to create a space where people can pursue their hobbies and meet people at the same time.

Social networking sites such as Friendster and Orkut were all the rage a year or two ago, but does anyone actually still use them? You might get a date or two out of using those sites (if you're lucky!), but in the end, there isn't enough on those sites to have people coming back to them regularly. Pure interest-based sites such as Webshots or Pollstar may be great sources of content but it still leaves people feeling lonely with no one to share their photographic and musical experiences with.

Interest-based social networking sites draw people because of their content but keep people because there is also a community element to them where they actually encourage people to meet up. The friendships formed over these sites are usually more meaningful than those from pure social networking sites because there is a common interest over which they are formed, whereas most people seem to use pure social networking sites primarily for finding potential mates. It's similar to how many people would rather spend their time volunteering or with an activity club where they can do something they're interested in and meet both friends AND potential mates rather than hit the bar scene where they end up competing against people who might otherwise be friends for the same potential mates who'll probably reject them anyways!

Many people, especially the growing number of single 20 and 30-somethings, are longing for connection and community. While Flickr is bringing together shutterbugs and Upcoming.org is bringing together people interested in going out to events, I believe there is plenty of room for innovation in helping connect people with all sorts of interests.

The Difference Between Water Cooler Conversations and Blogs

Whether an employee blogs on a corporate sponsored site or on their own blog, both they and their company are entering potentially risky waters. NPR’s Talk of the Nation yesterday did a program on Corporate Blogging that explored some of the legal and ethical issues of corporate blogs and employee blogs as well as the potential ramifications.

Host Neal Conan interviewed guests John Palfrey, director of Harvard University's Berkman Center for the Internet and Society, Michael Wiley, director of New Media for General Motors and Mark Jen, a former Google employee who was fired for what he said about the company in his blog. Palfrey pointed out that bloggers are not protected by “free speech rights” such as the first amendment in any special way. Palfrey’s quick advice was that “what is unlawful offline is also unlawful online”.

However, if you say the wrong thing at a water cooler you may get away with it given that your audience is likely to be very small and probably won’t include the people you are complaining about. But, disclose company information inappropriately on a blog or even commenting negatively about your job and you may be putting that very job at risk. The primary difference between the water cooler conversation and a blog post is about distribution. The potential impact of a blogger’s statement could have both immediate and long-term impact on the company’s reputation far greater than a water cooler conversation. Palfrey pointed out that with the archiving capabilities of Google and other archive sites as well as the rapid distribution of RSS feeds, off-the-cuff employee comments can have long lasting impact on a company and its reputation.  Even if an employee says good things about their company or its products, they could be disclosing information unfairly, resulting in a RegFD violation.

Sun decided to trust in the intelligence and insight of their employees to discern where to draw the line on what to say about the company, it’s strategy and it’s products, hosting over 1000 employee blogs. GM has decided to constrain employee blogs to a handful of carefully executed blogs, most notably, the GM FastLane blog, whose primary author is GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz.  In both cases, the companies are receiving high accolades for their approaches to corporate blogging and engagement with bloggers. In the promo for this piece, NPR points out that, ‘blogging is a favorite pastime for many tech-savvy writers’. While that is true, the blogging audience goes far beyond tech-savvy people. Blogging is easy. It requires no special technical skills to get started. Anyone can create their own blog or post comments to a blog quickly and for free using services such as Typepad. The low barrier to entry has enabled millions of consumer-savvy bloggers to participate in online discussions. That also means that any employee could be a blogger even if their company doesn’t provide hosting services or corporate blogging guidelines.

GM realized that blogging already goes far beyond the tech community reaching almost every demographic and geographic community, even those that have never expressed an interest in GM vehicles. The opportunity to connect with existing customers and potential customers, tech-savvy or not, proponents or critics, is so immense that both GM and Sun are making a bet that the benefits of corporate blogging far outweigh the risks. But the risks are real and not to be taken lightly.

Disclosure: John Palfrey is an advisor to Cymfony as well as a contributor to this blog.

Study Finds PR is the #1 Contributor to Organizational Success

We've all felt it and now the Council of PR Firms has confirmed it in a press release issued yesterday - 2004 was a "bounce back" year for the PR profession.  The findings outlined in the press release were the results of the third annual Public Relations Generally Accepted Practices Study (GAP III), published by the USC Annenberg Strategic Public Relations Center (SPRC) and sponsored by the Council of Public Relations Firms.  One of the most surprising findings of the study is included in a quote by Jerry Swerling, Director of Strategic PR Center and Principal Investigator for the study:

“While one year doesn't make a trend, our findings indicate that PR is not only doing very well as compared with past years, it may actually be entering a new era of vibrancy and maturity. In nearly all types of organizations surveyed, public relations budgets increased, additional staff were hired, and PR's role expanded. But the most stunning finding of GAP III is this: according to hundreds of senior-level PR people, their CEOs now believe that PR is the #1 contributor to organizational success, ahead of such functions as Marketing, Finance, Legal, Sales, and others. By comparison, PR was ranked #6 out of 8 functions in both 2003 and 2002.”

A pretty strong statement but 347 senior-level practioners from companies, government agencies, and non-profit agencies can't be wrong, right?

Among the key findings of GAP III:

• Budgets grew. Among all types of organizations surveyed, PR budgets rose by an average of 3% in 2004 versus 2003, with much larger increases in some categories. Additionally, companies that reported increased budgets in 2004 expected another budget increase in 2005.
• PR staffs grew. Other than the largest (Fortune 500) category of companies, every category of company remained the same or increased PR staff size from 2003 to 2004.
• Management support for PR increased. Management support for PR increased in every revenue category in 2004 versus 2003.
• PR's recommendations were taken more seriously. Regarding the extent to which PR's recommendations are taken seriously by senior management, the average score (on a 1-7 scale) rose significantly among all revenue categories.
• PR contributed more to strategic planning. PR and reputational considerations are factored into strategic and operational decision making and planning in their organizations.
• PR reported more often to the "C" Suite. More often than not, PR now typically reports to the "C-Suite" in organizations of all types.
• The PR firms received (generally) good news. GAP III data indicates that 2004 was a stabilizing year for the agencies. While the percentage of larger organizations working with agencies either remained flat or grew slightly, it declined among smaller organizations. However, clients generally allocated greater percentages of their total PR budgets to agencies. These facts, combined with the finding that the "Agency of Record" relationship model continued to decline in popularity, suggest that increasing numbers of clients are using a model in which they distribute a larger number of dollars, among a smaller number of agencies, rather than any single agency.

  While clients continue to value, more than any other attribute, the "Extra Arms and Legs" agencies provide, there appears to be a trend toward increased reliance on their more intellectual and strategic assets. When asked to express their greatest concern about working with agencies, "Cost" continued to be the category leader.

• PR/GR ratio continued to evolve. The Strategic Public Relations Center developed the PR/GR ratio, which gauges the number of dollars dedicated to total PR budgets (including salaries) for every million dollars in gross revenues. Among Fortune 500 GAP III respondents, the PR/GR Ratio was $643/$1 million; among the Fortune 501 - 1000 it was $544; and among the Fortune 1001 - 2000 it was $928.

• PR evaluation made little progress, and CEOs want more. As was the case in GAPs I and II, "Influence on Corporate Reputation" remained the most commonly cited metric, despite the lack of a generally accepted methodology for measuring that concept. However, when asked about the extent to which their CEOs believed that adequate PR evaluation methods currently exist, respondents were decidedly negative.
• Communications functions are much better integrated. Respondents indicated that the various communications-related functions within their organizations are better integrated and coordinated than before. This suggests that PR is playing a broader organizational role and the benefits of a more coordinated approach are becoming better understood.

And finally,

• The "Most Admired are different. GAP III identified a number of characteristics that distinguish companies on Fortune Magazine's "Most Admired" list from others, but the authors emphasized that factors such as their higher frequency of public ownership, generally larger size, and the more complex communications environments must be factored into the comparison. That said, the characteristics that distinguish Fortune 2000 "Most Admired" companies from others include these:
  • Their PR budgets are bigger. The average "Most Admired" PR budget was $9.2 million, versus $3.8 million for all others.
  • They saw themselves as being more "Proactive" and "Democratic" than all others.
  • PR reported to the Executive Office 50% of the time among the "Most Admired," as opposed to 53% among all others.
  • The "Most Admired" have much larger PR staffs. For example, among Fortune 2000 companies, their average staff numbers 44.2 people, versus 22.4 for non-"Most Admired."
  • In addition to having bigger internal staffs, the "Most Admired" also make greater use of outside PR agencies. 81% of them use outside agencies, as compared with 71% for all other Fortune 2000 companies.
  • The "Most Admired" also spent more on PR measurement and evaluation (as a percentage of their total PR budgets) than did non-"Most Admireds." "Influence on Corporate Reputation" remained the most commonly cited metric.

The press release suggests looking at the final report for more details on the findings - the complete study will be available for download at no cost  (in sections), at www.annenberg.usc.edu/sprc, effective May 23.

Blog Bits - Week of May 16th

First bike locks and now laptop locks.  Micro Persuasion recently posted an entry about buzz surrounding the ability to break Kensington locks with a toilet paper tube (locking picking is apparently a sport).  Gizmodo, the gadgets Weblog, and BoingBoing picked up the story and it has been spreading.  What’s interesting is that the story broke last fall but it is just getting coverage now.  Will Kensington respond?  So far, their PR team has been silent.

Google Adwords has a blog as of May 16th.  Check it out.  So far this blog is set up like an extension of the Adwords help section but with enhancement updates and downtime notifications.  Overall, it looks like it could use some help from some of the more advanced Bloggers out there.  BL Ochman is already on the scene suggesting that they turn on comments.

Shel Hotz  reported on his blog that Steve Jobs claims that support for the radio-like programs downloaded from the Internet will be included in the next version of the iPod software, iTunes, due within 60 days.  Hotz comments that “the approach contradicts the open nature of podcasting and will force most listeners to continue accessing podcasts the way they currently do, since the podcasts they listen to may not be available through Apple’s screening process”.  For now, it atleast seems like a step in the right direction.

Analysis of Newsweek's Rough Ride in the Blogosphere

The stunning admission by Newsweek on May 15th that they had not fully researched a report published in the May 9th issue on the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba has been heavily discussed across the blogosphere. The most incendiary item in the report was that a copy of the Quran was flushed down a toilet. Whether or not this actually happened, the mere idea that it could have happened to the book held sacred by all Muslims caused riots and deaths throughout the world further damaging the image of the United States to many peoples in many countries.

Cymfony Analyst, Jeffrey Feldman, took a look at the overall conversation based on the initial article and the apology by Newsweek. Although many people believe that blog discussions are often superficial, many posts about the Newsweek Quran report were well thought out and expressed far beyond the typical sound-byte reporting and commentary usually found on broadcast and cable programs.

Read the summary here.

Feldman discusses the "echo chamber effect often seen in both traditional and new media" with a summary of the most common themes found across the postings. Surprisingly, only a smattering of posts accused Newsweek of trying to sell more magazines by publishing the report. However, this issue may have an opposite effect driving down advertising revenue in the future as MediaPost pointed out, "the looming question left hanging over everyone's head is what effect, if any, will this story have on Newsweek's journalistic credibility, and its power to attract advertisers?"

Survey Says...PR Reaps Benefits of Decline in Advertising

PRWeek (subscription required) published its 2005 Market Management Survey on May 16th.  The third annual report co-sponsored by MS&L assess the attitudes and opinions about the value of PR from the perspective of senior marketing executives.  It's definitely worth a look if you have a subscription or can get your hands on the PDF.  The survey illustrates what PR and marketing practitioners have been living over the past few years...how to capitalize on the shift away from traditional advertising.  And PRWeek editor Elly Trickett does a good job of summarizing "why" the shift.  She explains that:

"the past few years have seen something of a crisis in traditional TV and advertising, due to in large part to two words that have only come into existence in the past half-decade or so: TIVO and blogs.  These two phenomena have been the cornerstone of the shift in formula of most marketing programs away from the 30 second TV ad centerpiece toward a more fluid interaction with a highly knowledge audience."

Another highlight worth a mention is that fact that the survey found a rise in alternative advertising activity that was grounded in credibility including targeting influencers, grassroots marketing and media relations.   Although the survey or PRWeek didn't expand much on this finding, I'm curious to know if the respondents considered bloggers as influencers? I would suspect yes. 

Without revealing too much of the survey (even though I think that PRWeek wouldn't mind promoting its findings) my last comment is on the results tied to measurement.

• 39% say PR firms do an excellent or very good job measuring the effectiveness of their work, a drop from 53% in 2004. 

A drop?  This fact is a bit alarming since no matter what size company a PR firm is working with there are a number of tools and techniques available today to tie PR results to the bottom line.  All agencies should be measuring.  PRWeek justifies the drop by saying that "its hard to measure the effects of many programs that are based on influencers, blogs and other grassroots techniques, or even where people are getting a message from in the first place."  Coming from Cymfony and witnessing first hand the work we do for clients, I have to disagree with PRWeek on that statement. 

I just noticed that you can obtain the full report, independent from a PR Week subscription, for $150.00 by emailing christine.casalino@prweek.com

Marketing PR

Luddites Will Lose

eMarketer published a report late last week entitled The Business of Blogging  (with a price tag of $695).  The reason for the report, explains eMarketer, is that although blogs have been the focus of numerous media reports recently, so far their economic impact is all but immeasurable—and they make many businesses nervous.  The report claims to focus on the use of blogs in business, either as a corporate marketing or communications tool, as an advertising medium for marketers, or a publishing format for media companies.   

Since I haven't yet read the report I can't comment specifically but I'd be remiss if I didn't offer BL Ochman's summary on whatsnextblog.com. 

Thanks to Ochman we learn that the report provides some good information, just not anything new.  Additionally, she reveals that the report says, "big businesses have to pay close attention to blog posts, even those that appear on low-traffic sites, because a hallmark of the blogging community is constant attention to other blogs, and a provocative post will end up being linked to by numerous other blogs, which in turn will engender further links…"   I think marketers are getting the point.

But what really drew me to her post is her comment that Luddites will lose...

Luddites will lose
No business person can afford the Luddite approach of closing their ears to information about blogs. In the end effect, blogs are simply a content management system that can be used interactively for marketing, journalism, and all kinds of information transmission. It's like not updating from Windows 95. Eventually, you simply won't be able to communicate with other businesses.

Enough said.

DRM: The recording industry's biggest mistake

On Friday, I read a post in Techdirt, regarding the newly launched Yahoo! music store. It claimed that lack of scope (ie number of songs) isn't what's hampering the growth of online music sales, and that smart labels need to move towards a new business model.

They don't.

The classical business model is fine. People are, by and large, willing to pay for what the use. (There's a great essay on this by John Scalzi, here.) The problem is DRM (Digital Rights Management). Consumers don't want to buy AAC music that will only play on their iPod. They don't want to buy WMA music that will only play on their (insert one of many WMA compatable players here). They want music that they'll own forever, can move between whatever player they wish, and can put on any computer they wish. In short, they want to buy mp3s.

The industry's embrace of DRM is nothing short of idiotic. Non-DRM files are readily available from pirate networks. The only places they're not available are music stores. If one wants music one can take from one's house to one's car, one has to either buy and rip a CD, or become a pirate.

DRM does have its place, and that's in song samples. Let me listen to a new song for a few days. If I like it, require that I buy it, but let me buy it without a digital lien.

Though the recording industry's business model has some issues, there are only so many subscriptions to which people are going to, or at least can afford to, subscribe. Record companies have already forgone billions in revenue by ignoring customer demands, and created an entire generation of people accustomed to and comfortable with pirating. How much more do they have to loose before they wake up?

(Tune in tomorrow for my diatribe on the wireless phone carriers and their lovely walled gardens.)

Blog Bits - Week of May 9th

The New Communications Blogzine  had an interesting article on The Future of Journalism by Tom Foremski.  In his article he claims that as online publishing grows stronger, the more traditional media models are in trouble.  He says that “new media technologies that are represented by blogging, RSS, etc., will undoubtedly lead to a more vibrant "mediasphere" that will trade in a broad currency of ideas, rather than requiring a lot of currency to broadcast ideas.”  On the other hand, Nick Denton, publisher of Gawker Media argues that “the (blog) hype comes from unemployed or partially employed marketing professionals and people who never made it as journalists wanting to believe there's going to be this new revolution and their lives are going to be changed."  Only time will tell who’s right.

There will be a second Global PR Blog Week this summer from June 13-17, 2005.  This is an online conference on how new media technologies are changing the practice of Public Relations and corporate communications. 

PR Tactics posted an article called Consumer-Generated Media - Challenges and Opportunities for Public Relations by Lloyd Trufelman.  In his article, Trufelman says that consumers are in control of consumption and can decide which channel they want to listen to.  He speculates that blogs are a reaction the the “increasing bland coverage presented by many local market editions of chain newspapers”

A Fundamental Change in Market Research and Business?

Since I like to comment on mainstream media trying to rationalize the blog word, Sunday's  New York Times article entitled "A Blog Revolution? Get a Grip" is a perfect example of the raging debate on whether blogs are a new business model or a fundamental change in marketing and business.   In it, Nick Denton of Gawker Media says "A blog is much better at tearing things down - people, careers, brands - than it is at building them up."  As for the blog revolution, he says: "Give me a break." 

While comparisons could be made to personal web pages, I think the ease and anonymity of blogs are allowing for a fundamental change in the way business is done. There is too much rich data to be found in combing through them especially if you can express your thoughts without fear of retribution. Look at what happened at Los Alamos with the director resigning after bloggers brought up some very serious allegations and then the NYTimes picked up the story.

As we all know, many people love writing and reading about negative issues.  Today, the ability to air issues, likes as well as concerns allows for marketers to look for trends and analysis that in the past would call for extensive primary research and focus groups.  Finding out what problems consumers have with dealers or new features can allow timely insight and the ability to react to the situation.

The reason that this does represent a fundamental change is the confluence of these various factors including linking, track backs,  and RSS distribution.  Another factor that points to  a significant change from traditional journalism is the credibility that can sometimes occur when large numbers of people air very similar concerns, with an issue or a leader, similar to what happened in the Los Alamos situation.  I am not saying that having 300 people say the same thing makes it right but it allows a marketer or a corporate executive to see troubling or interesting trends that might point to an opportunity that competition has not seen. 

Even examining what Nick is doing underscores his need to use blogs to attract large amounts of readers to make his business model work.  I think we will see a slowdown in the rapid growth of consumer generated media as the novelty wears off and we will see a flight to quality.  However, the huge amount of relevant and dynamic information will continue to provide a windfall for marketers in understanding how the brands and products are perceived. The ease and low cost of distribution has certainly allowed many to post their thoughts.  And the wealth of information presented in blogs, usenet groups etc. has created a demand for those looking to purchase products and get good up to date credible information.

The best companies will seek to make use this information to their advantage as Daimler-Chrysler is doing with the marketing in Dodge Charger division.

Hear "How Blogs are Changing the PR Landscape"

The International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) is hosting a teleseminar Thursday, May 12th on "How Blogs are Changing the PR Landscape."   Here's the session description:

"Weblogs, citizen journalism and a new technology called really simple syndication (RSS) have permanently changed how companies need to communicate online. Millions of bloggers are actively reporting news, creating a backchannel to the mainstream press. At the same time, corporate blogs are also a tremendous opportunity for the PR professional. They can showcase the people and thought leadership behind and organization via an unfiltered channel. How do these new technologies impact the PR professional? Where do you get started? That's what this session will help you understand." 

Steve Rubel of CooperKatz is presenting.  You can register here.

Blog Bits - Week of May 2nd

Another informative interview on Jeremy Pepper’s blog, Musings from Pop! Public Relations.  This time Pepper interviewed Dan Gillmor, founder of Grassroots Media Inc., a blog taking a closer look at the future of journalism.  He also has a book called, We the Media: Grassroots Journalism By the People, For the People.  In the interview, Gillmore states, “The chief way I hope (grassroots journalism) changes mass media is to move the whole of media to more of a conversation, and less of a lecture. That would be an incredible and wonderful outcome."

PR Fuel reported some interesting statistics in a survey of 50 journalists conducted by Ben Silverman.  Results indicate that 24% of journalists are reading blogs.  36% of those journalists read blogs for the same subject they are writing about.  18% were prompted to write a story from a blog and 24% felt that blogs added value to their job.  Some of these numbers may appear low however, if you consider that only 8% read all of the press releases received via email and 2% read press releases received via snailmail, the blogosphere still holds great potential for both PR professionals and journalists alike.

Microsoft is looking for nominations for “Team 99” via their Channel 9 blog.  Team 99 will consist of 20 developers and super users who will provide feedback for the Longhorn launch.  The key is, all members must be bloggers.  Sounds like the ultimate online focus group.  It will be interesting to see the results.  Blog Bits will be keeping an eye on the developing story.      

More Advice for Target

Robert Scoble noted in his blog yesterday that he was heading out to Target to discuss the blogosphere and asked people to offer free advice to Target. What a great way to engage consumers and develop a positive discussion focused on the Target brand.

Listening to differing opinions is the key to developing a great interactive discussion with consumers for a company with as diverse an audience as Target. Target, like many retailers and consumer-oriented companies, needs to have a voice that appeals to different age groups and different income levels.

Steve Rubel pointed out a number of great ideas for the retailer including RSS Coupons, developing local blogs for customer feedback and connecting their famous designers to consumers through the Target blog. Also recently, Jeremy Pepper at Pop! PR suggested that Target create a character blog for the Target dog. It could be a really tacky approach or a really funny one depending on your perspective. (or age) But it might just get people new to blogging to visit the Target blog just to interact with the dog.

If you take a close look at discussion on the blog sites about Target, you can see that there are many people, especially women, talking about how much they love Target, revealing new ways that Target can reach them through interactive marketing. Those women fall into many different categories including self-proclaimed ‘Target Queens’, young mothers, teenagers and women who practically describe themselves as home design addicts. There are critics as well, but many are offering great suggestions for new products to offer (body pillows) and customer service improvements (longer store hours).

The net-net is that Target should listen to their customers who are already very vocal in the blogosphere across a wide spectrum of passionate consumers. They love Target’s product offerings and designer fashions but some of the best-loved aspects of Target are the ones that enable people to connect with each other in traditional ways (great party supplies, invitations and cards) and those that enable everyone to feel good about themselves even though they spend more than at Target they ever intend to. Isn’t that a retailer’s dream? Maybe Target can find a way to offer theme-based blogs focused on parties, moving, shopping with kids, and all the other topics high on the interest list of their most passionate consumers. Creating an environment online where these dispersed yet passionate consumers can connect with each other could create a huge buzz on it's own just through word-of-mouth.

Robert Scobleizes New York

Microsoft blogger Robert Scoble yesterday regaled a crowd of more than 125 at a meeting -- co-sponsored by Cymfony -- of New York's Business Development Institute. (You can hear the webcast replay here.) Can anyone really be that cheerful?  Scoble sure does love his job, which he describes as being able to prowl Microsoft's development labs with a $700 video camera, asking people what they're up to. He made many an interesting point yesterday, as captured by SearchViews.

As the moderator of the discussion, I had a bit of a challenge. Yes, Robert has earned every bit of notoriety he has received. Yes, he is sincere, writes well and exemplifies how an individual single-handedly can improve a corporate reputation. But I wondered to what extent Scoble's rise is an accident of history.

Scoble joined Microsoft in the spring of 2003, during a time when the Redmond regime had been declared a monopolist by courts in Europe and America. Microsoft had a keen interest in "developing a human face," as Robert phrased it yesterday. It served the company's purpose to elevate trusted individuals to help Microsoft blog its way back to credibility.

Few other companies today feel the urgency Microsoft does.  For most, a blogging presence is a trendy "nice-to-have" that -- for the next year or two at least -- will best serve as a 21st century extension to the same old process of manufacturing a marketing message and delivering it through the appropriate channels. Or so they believe.

I would love to be wrong about this. Am I?

Weighting the Influence of Traditional Media vs. Blogs

There has been a lot of buzz the last few days about a patent that Google filed outlining their new ranking algorithms for their search engine that would favor traditional media sources. Search Engine Watch states that this patent was actually filed about 18 months ago so some of the new techniques could already be in use.  

While Google may have a unique approach to weighting news sources based on their credibility, the idea and practice of weighting publications has been around for a long time. PR people and market researchers have been using weighting techniques for decades to indicate the potential influence of a story. This patent may favor mainstream media (MSM) if traditional pubs are automatically given stronger weights. This could be a boon for MSM which has been seeing steadily decreasing readership and eroding ad revenues. But companies should not fall back to the singular view that they can focus their communications strategies purely on MSM.

There is significant analytical value in determining what the exposure of your brand and spokespeople is within this elite media list. However, companies should have multiple views of online influencers who rely on many different sources for product and company information. Even Bill Gates realizes the importance of online media, trade media and blogging. He recently gave an interview to Engadget, one of the most popular blogs.

If you need any more incentive to keep an eye open to the growing importance of blogs, read the updated research from Pew Internet & American Life project showing the increased influence on blogs in the U.S. especially within the 18-29 age group:

·        7% of the 120 million U.S. adults who use the Internet say they have created a blog or web-based diary. That represents more than 8 million people.

·        27% of Internet users say they read blogs, this number goes up to 36% for younger adults

·        19% of online Americans ages 18-29 have created blogs.

Media Transparency

At Los Alamos, Blogging Their Discontent (subscription required) appeared in yesterday's NYT.  The article was about a blog at a public institution, Los Alamos that while not revolutionary itself is a dramatic example of the power of blogs to bring credible information into the public spectrum and potentially effect dramatic change.

There were several things about this incident that struck me as an acceleration in the trend of blogs as an instrument to vent areas of frustration and unease with authority and leadership.

First of all, this was Los Alamos, one of the most secretive parts of our defense research organization.  Next, you had anywhere from an estimated 200-500 employees share their thoughts who are normally some of the most tight lipped of any public and private institutions.  Then of course the timing of this blog is very auspicious in that the Univ. of California is under pressure for renewal of its contract for running a portion of Los Alamos. The aggregation and inclusion of a large number of employees in one place is another factor that I believe gives their complaints about an abusive leader more credibility. A reader can instantly see the common themes among the blogger's comments It is true you could have several people place different comments but there are some who have signed openly. Another concerning issue is that Los Alamos may be in danger of losing other senior and accomplished researchers such as Dr. Brad Lee Holian which is a important issue not to be overlooked.

As more traditional media sources such as the NYTimes pick up and research this story there is even greater likelihood that the call for accountability will cause some sort of change.  Jeff Jarvis, editor of BuzzMachine calls this a " New Ethic of Transparency."  Maybe this swelling public voice will cause leaders to reexamine some of their strategies when they know it will be harder to keep everything confidential.  I think it gives new power to the individual voice to bring to light areas and issues that deserve further scrutiny without pronouncing anyone innocent or guilty.   If bloggers can create this call for accountability at Los Alamos, maybe it can occur before the future Enrons arise again.