Spidered Web

I occasionally chide some of my fellow PR bloggers for their endless obsession with all the new digital gadgets and applications that pop incessantly with aplomb in their RSS readers.I mean who, other than the micropersuader, can keep track of all the twitters, mash-ups and widgets to which the social media set gloms on for…… Continue reading Spidered Web

Journalistic Embrace

The sobering news emanating from newspaperdom last week sparked new speculation on the future vitality of that medium. Profits were down (again), and online ad revenue, while growing impressively, just doesn’t seem to be able to replace lost traditional ad revenue.Nonetheless, the old media guard can’t be accused of complacency when it comes to embracing…… Continue reading Journalistic Embrace

Virtuous Tides and Trees

Now that the environment has returned to the front burner of the nation’s political (and public) agendas, I wonder whether Earth Day 2007 will regain some of its former glory?The first Earth Day, of course, was held on April 22, 1970, and is recognized as the beginning of the modern environmental movement. “Over 20 million…… Continue reading Virtuous Tides and Trees

Cans Don’t Lie

BL points to a Pepsi promotion wherein consumers are invited to go online to design a can of Pepsi. Cool idea, and certainly part of a larger trend.BL notes, however, that Jones Soda has been letting people do this since 2000. Since I never heard of Jones Soda, I’ll let it fizzle.This Sunday’s Los Angeles…… Continue reading Cans Don’t Lie

Trained Journalist

A confluence of postings brings me to the subject of today’s piece. The idea was sparked by a rant from a Silicon Valley product manager who bemoaned how inaccurate and lazy mainstream and citizen journalists can be: “It’s a totally different world out there, assumptions I had about the knowledge level of the people I…… Continue reading Trained Journalist

Conference Cornucopia

Who missed David Pogue and Steven Levy’s gushing coverage of the TED Conference in Monterey the week before last? Talk about a hot ticket!Then there was January’s Always On Confab in New York, and its sibling AO Hollywood skedded for the first week of May. I just attended the first Community 2.0 Conference in Vegas,…… Continue reading Conference Cornucopia

Socially Optimized or Optimally Socialized?

Ahhhh. The news release. That poor, beleaguered PR tool that has died a thousand deaths, only to be reborn — optimally and socially speaking.This morning I was greeted with a text message from media maven Lisa Kovitz who tipped me to our friend and mediabistro.com doyenne Laurel Touby’s answer to the myriad unsolicited (and misguided)…… Continue reading Socially Optimized or Optimally Socialized?

Life’s a Beach

I’m not a big MySpace fan, but there are plenty who are (for now). I much prefer FaceBook for my boys given some of the safeguards in place there.Relatively quietly (unless you consider Ynetnews.com a mainstream media outlet) the State of Israel has opened an outpost on News Corp’s dominant and youthful social network. And…… Continue reading Life’s a Beach

Swayed

Yesterday The Guardian reported on a new social media product called “Sway” that not only mines the online conversation, but purports to “influence” that conversation. Sherrilynne at StrivePR pointed to the piece.Sway’s makers at the UK-based marketing group Creston make no claims about lowering one’s cholesterol. Instead, the company’s “Director of Influence” had this to…… Continue reading Swayed