The Federal Trade Commission is seeking your input regarding future of news media in advance of its upcoming workshops. The FTC seeks to explore the digital impact on consumption behavior and its correlating effects on the the business of publishing and journalism. The workshop will be held on December 1-2, 2009 and will consider a wide range of issues, such as Internet-related changes in advertising and the way people receive news, ideas for reducing costs and restructuring news organizations, potential…
Revealing the People Defining Social Networks
Source: Shutterstock Social Networks are among the most powerful examples of socialized media. They create a dynamic ecosystem that incubates and nurtures relationships between people and the content they create and share. As these communities permeate and reshape our lifestyle and how we communicate with one another, we’re involuntarily forcing advertisers and marketers to rapidly evolve how they vie for our attention. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Yelp, and other online communities transformed the regimen and practice of marketing “at” people into…
Group Mentality: Twitter to Debut Lists
Long available using third-party Twitter tools such as PeopleBrowsr or TweetDeck, Twitter is readying the release of lists, or otherwise known in other networks (FriendFeed) as groups. This is welcome, albeit overdue, feature that allows users to categorize and organize information based on themes, interests, action items, locales, and friends/peers for future reference, followup and sharing. The Twitter blog goes into greater detail (note the fact that lists are public by default): The idea is to allow people to curate…
What if Twitter Had an App Store? Now It Does.
In October 2008, I documented months of research and analysis into a full directory of Twitter applications for communications and marketing professionals. In May 2009, I categorized the most applicable and qualified applications, and with the help of JESS3, we published The Twitterverse, a beta map of the Twitter universe that arranged relevant applications in a way that allowed us to see and navigate the landscape more efficiently and effectively. While working on the official release of the Twitterverse, I…
The Conversation Prism: The Landscape for International Social Networking
As Web 2.0 and Social Media became globally pervasive, the landscape proved expansive, overwhelming, and bewildering. It required a social cartographer in order to visualize its grandeur. Thus, in August 2008, the original Conversation Prism was born with the help of Jesse Thomas of JESS3. The Conversation Prism continues to rapidly evolve as social networks emerge, merge, and vanish. In fact, Jesse Thomas and I are already hard at work mapping version 3.0. One thing that we cannot overlook is…
The Wisdom of the Crowds?
Credit More often than not, we’re reminded through simple human behavior and interaction that Twitter isn’t always the TNN (Twitter News Network) we expect it to be. And, when the collective of people “being themselves” amasses concentration and velocity, we learn that sometimes the wisdom that manifests within the crowds isn’t very wise at all. The Trending Topics on Twitter, for example, offer a looking glass into the consumption and sharing patterns by general users. And at any given moment,…
Stop Talking About Social Media and Go Do It Already
Guest post by Louis Gray, @louisgray Credit: ShutterStock Social media can be an incredible tool, both for producing and consuming incredible amounts of information. Over the last few years, there is no question that an unprecedented change has taken place, putting tools for publication and discovery in the hands of everyone – from simple text to photos and video. Social media tools are changing businesses in terms of how they can connect with customers, partners, peers and even the competition….
Putting the Public Back in Public Relations is Now Back in Stock
Credit: Frank Gruber via Flickr When Deirdre Breakenridge and I initially heard that book stores were reporting that Putting the Public Back in Public Relations was out of stock, we suspected a distribution hiccup was at root of the issue. While it’s never good news to hear that customers cannot get their hands on the very object in which we dedicated and invested over a year of our lives, Deirdre and I were elated to learn that the month-long dry…
ESPN takes Social Media Guidelines Just a Bit Too Far or How to Stunt Your Employee’s Growth
Today’s guest Op-ed contributor is Serena Ehrlich, Co-Founder, StartUp Army; Past President, NIRI Los Angeles Chapter, Dallas/Fort Worth Chapter Credit Recently ESPN established new social media guidelines banning their employees from discussing anything related to ESPN or sports on any social network. Some see this as a clever move for ESPN to save their intellectual property. I see this decision as detrimental both to ESPN as well as their employees. This sweeping decision has two tragic consequences. Not only does…
Using Twitter to Connect PR Students, Educators, and Professionals
Credit: Shutterstock I recently participated in #PRStudChat, a recurring discussion between PR experts and those looking to learn on Twitter. I found it enthralling. The interactive forum was created by Deirdre Breakenridge, my co-author for Putting the Public Back in Public Relations, and Valerie Simon in response to an ongoing series of questions they received from students seeking advice or insight into how PR was changing in the face of the “now” or real-time Web. In one such interview, PRSSA…
