Guest post by Minter Dial @mdial on social, transparency and politics using the recent French Presidential election between Nicolas Sarkozy and FranƧois Hollande as a case study The paths of social media and politics would seem to be inextricably linked. Politics has proven, in many countries, to be a great way to ādemocratizeā social media, or the other way around. During the Arab Spring, social media helped inspire a change in regime. In the US, social media clearly contributed to…
Twitter: Acquisition vs. Retention
Credit Seems that even the shiniest applications on the Web also face the same growing pains as any product, no matter where it resides on the adoption bell curve. While many widely speculated the total number of new users who were introduced to Twitter as a result of the now infamous race to 1,000,000 followers, we do know that the number seems to hover between 500,000 and 1.2 million. When compared to the estimated existing user base of ~5 million…
Redefining the Echo Chamber to Excel in an Economic Crisis
My latest post is now up on TechCrunch. What follows is the unedited director’s cut. The point of this article is to redefine how startups (not solely tech companies) view and define early adopters and the “echo chamber” in order to gain momentum in order to ācross the chasmā to the next tier of evolution, adoption, and monetization. This is about uncovering the very people who can benefit from what theyāre introducing and in turn, evolve the product/service based on…
PR 2.0: Putting the Public Back in Public Relations
Have you ever met someone so energetic, positive and incredibly smart – someone who exudes passion and someone who “gets it” in an inspirational way? I’m lucky to know one such person, Deirdre Breakenridge, and she has just published a new, must-read book, PR 2.0: New Media, New Tools, New Audiences. I’m honored to have my ideas, philosophies, experiences, and vision shared throughout the book. I’m even more humbled to have been asked to contribute the foreword. PR 2.0, as…
Zude, Where’s My Social Network?
One of the more talked about companies at the Web 2.0 Expo is Zude, an interesting example of what’s possible in the realm of social computing. The world maybe doesn’t need another social network, but what we sure could use is a platform that allows us to aggregate social elements from all over the web into one place – how we want, when we want. Zude officially announced in beta and allows users to grab elements from any social networking…
PR 2.0 = The Evolution of PR, Nothing Less, Nothing More
Source There are many of us running back and forth from the edge to the center who would love to drop “2.0” from new evolution of PR. Hey, it’s even the name of this blog, and has been for years, but thereās a reason I havenāt changed the name yet. The subject itself is a catalyst for healthy, informative, and motivating conversations. I was reminded of this as good friend Kami Huyse shouted on Twitter recently, “I hate PR 2.0…
PR for Startups Now Available as a Free ebook
I recently spoke at an SVASE StartUp University event in San Francisco to discuss PR and how startups can effectively leverage the right strategies, tools and tactics in order to gain visibility at every stage of their growth – without breaking the bank. Early stage and bootstrapped startups must embrace DIY (Do it Yourself) or outsourced PR as their product reaches advanced alpha in order to build strategic visibility without losing precious time. It all starts with answering a several…
New ebook: The Art and Science of Blogger Relations
Happy New Year everyone! The discussion around blogger relations is more relevant now than ever. And quite honestly, with every debate, exploration, and analysis, these conversations only fuel the advancement and improvement of Public Relations overall. It makes us think. Lest we forget, there is a significant percentage of bloggers, reporters, and analysts who think we’re useless – we’re merely spin artists who focus on pitching, blasting, and cranking out poorly written press releases. We contact people without caring or…
PR Advice for Startups
In celebration of Alex Iskoldās brilliant toolbox for startups on Read/Write Web today, Iāve decided to join the conversation to help startups make PR work for them now and in the long term. PR is one of the most misunderstood disciplines in the marketing department and many startup entrepreneurs and even veteran executives are quick to under estimate and under value it, or on the contrary, expect PR to solve all of their marketing needs all with just one email…
You.tv, A Series on Lifecasting – Part III
In the first post, we explored the meteoric evolution in online video, dating back to Web 1.0 with JenniCam, We Live in Public, and DotComGuy and now in Web 2.0 with the launch of the incredibly popular Justin.tv. In the next chapter we dove into ustream.tv, which is the first online network to combine Youtube with 24/7 livecasting capabilities aka lifecasting aka livestreaming, a la Justin.tv. Since the last article, You.tv continues to blossom into a full-blown media category that…