Mike’s Points

Poynter’s Monique Van Dusseldorp has a cool posting today, about the use of instant messaging for new personal communication. Microsoft is assisting the Netherlands in several tests by licensing commercial “chatbots” that users can added to their buddy list.

One cool one involves a couple banks: “Dutch banks already have started to use the service: Postbank and SNSBank ran trials in which IM users could get account information within the IM chat — just by typing in questions like ‘How much money do I have?’”

Then, there’s the really cool feature: getting news.

“News is indeed a good option. Dutch newspaper ‘Volkskrant‘ has been the first to launch its own IM messenger service, called Nieuwskraker, this week. Once you add Nieuwskraker to your buddy list, you automatically get a single news update when you log in, and then get automatic breaking news alerts in the chat environment. Additionally, you can ask for news at any moment by typing in some set queries — and Nieuwskraker also will do archive searches on any word you type in.”

Yes, there are news agregator sites and tools, but there is interesting potential in the use of IMs. If you can pull news, you’d definitely be able to pull RSS and related feeds for blogs and other sources.
– Mike

Technorati tags: Poynter, instant messaging, Microsoft

An amazing story is going on in India. I first posted about it a week ago, after first reading about the story from the Yahoo! Group Image Management. (BTW, Image Group is a very good PR/communications group if those in North America want a more global industry perspective.)

Basically, one Indian blogger, Rashmi Bansal, ran a review of Indian Insitute of Planning and Management’s claims about affiliations with some international institutions. The review was in JAM Magazine, where she is editor and publisher.

Then, a second Indian blogger Gaurav Sabnis posted his reactions to Bansal’s review — which, like Bansal’s, were critical. Sabnis received legal threats from IIPM for his critizism. He ended up resigning from his job — not being fired — rather than cause trouble for his employer and possibly being asked to stop blogging.

According to what the Image Management moderator posted, here are some very interesting stories and various sides to the story, which has exploded in the India blogsphere:

Hindustan Times, A leading Indian newspaper has a detailed article.

The official response of IIPM is posted in a blog. (UPDATED Oct. 28, 2005, 9:50 p.m. ET. The link is not IIPM’s site, as noted in the comments. My apologies. It’s just that IIPM’s official response was posted in the Logical Thinking blog.)

Meanwhile, bloggers have started a signature campaign demanding IIPM to apologise to the bloggers under the title “IIPM: Stop your lies.”

I think only the recent Dell-Jarvis episode could rival what is going on in India. It’s very interesting to see how the blogging is being treated and companies are responding to in two different cultures.

Definitely something to keep an eye on.
– Mike

Technorati tags: India, blogging, Gaurav Sabnis

Bacon’s MediaSource is taking bloggers seriously.

Reecently, it sent its informational survey to bloggers — though I didn’t get one — seeking profile information on them for its database (which my company uses).

As “BusinessWeek’s” Stephen Baker points out, bloggers are growing as an important media outlet for those in public relations/media relations.

Peter Himler did comment one major concern: “I am concerned about the inevitable backlash that will result when PR pros en masse ‘pitch’ their clients’ goods and services to citizen journalists.”

It’s a valid concern. However, as I also commented, why should bloggers be treated any different than how good PR/media relations professionals should treat other media outlets. Though, unfortunately, many PR “pros” do mass-pitch media, they shouldn’t. Even Micro Persuasion received an off-target pitch.

To effectively pitch media, think like the media. That is, have a good sense of what good news and feature stories are. Know your outlets. Know your outlets’ audiences. And, as much a you can, customize your pitch. (Self promo: One of my first posts was on this subject.)

One-on-one communication: Blogs are great for it; PR, not so much.
– Mike

Technorati tags: BusinessWeek, blogging, public relations, Bacon’s

As much as I don’t like to admit it, I’m really starting to like Google. Its desktop search is much quicker in finding old e-mails than the “Find” function on MS Outlook.

And, its Google Earth and its API map applications others have used are really neat tools.

So, I guess yesterday, there was a lot of hubub about its Google Base. Yes, Micro Persuasion has a note on it. But, TechDirt really has some good analysis. As Mike said, Google Base is really about ” enabling people to create their own specialized apps, using a simple online database powered with Google’s search tools.”

See, Google is making useful tools. Making stuff that real, every-day people can use. Making it easy to blog. The previously-mentioned desktop search. Practical, useful stuff. Not flashy, but functional.

What a concept! Maybe that’s why Bill Gates is so concerned about Google.
– Mike

Technorati tags: Google, Microsoft, Google Base

Great piece from Steve Outing on Editor & Publisher about how newspapers and other media can take advantage of the current (and permanent?) citizen journalist craze.

My biggest problems with CJ is the potential for credibility, integrity and basic honesty (at least, as honest as any naturally biased person can be. We all have our biases.).

But, Outing has a great section regarding whether or not to train CJs, or citJs, as he refers to them:
“I can’t help but think that that’s a good idea. Consider holding public seminars that educate community members about your citJ site and how they can contribute, and offer up some editors to give advice about producing good-quality content.”

The counter point to training CJs is:
“We Media’s [Chris] Willis concurs: ‘There is little hard evidence to suggest that your average citizen is interested in being a journalist in the traditional sense.’

So perhaps we really want to train community members to use our citJ sites to ’share their experiences,’ not pretend to be journalists.”

I really don’t care if CJs are journalist “in the traditional sense.” I just don’t want propoganda in the “news” of what I read.

So, if CJ is not the proper terminology, maybe as I noted recently, they should be citizen columnists. Or their stories labels “citizen scoops?”

Whatever CJ evolves to, there will be notable differences in CJs reporting on professional media sites and papers/broadcast, and CJs who act as their own publishers. Of course, there’s the third category of CJs, stand-alone sites who use nothing but CJs (like OhMyNews.com and Orato.com).
–Mike

Technorati tags: Citizen Journalism, Journalism

Colin McKay in the Great White North that is Canada — home of Labatt, Molson, great fishing, and just really nice people — found a number of great how-tos when it comes to blogging and communications.

The pieces are focused on grassroots and cyber-dissident blogging, environmental and non-profit communications. However, we all should be able to take tidbits from them and apply to our own careers and personal blogs/communications.

The more of these practical guides for blogging are available, the more accepted, professional and even mainstream blogging will become.

Guides like these, especially the Reporters Without Borders‘ “Handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents” will spur citizen journalism, as well as their intended audience. Overall, as noted recently, that is good. However, you should always be cautious when reading CJ sites and not take everything you read as gospel.

Fortunately, at least in the Reporters Without Boarders handbook, it explains how a blog can “establish its credibility through observing basic ethical and journalistic principles.”
– Mike

Technorati tags: blogging, non-profits, Reporters Without Borders

Apparently, Major League Baseball is upset over the most recent “Got Milk?” ad.

According to the AP story on Yahoo!, the ad “talks about a player getting pulled from a game ‘after testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance.’

In the next scene, a coach pulls a carton of milk from the slugger’s locker.”

MLB’s Exec VP for Business Tom Brosnan noted, “There is nothing humorous about steroid abuse.”

Yes, Brosnan is right. But, it’s just BASEBALL. And, baseball brought its steroid problems on itself through a players’ union being too strong, weak-knee owners, and players not truly strong enough to play using their own abilities. They simply cheated.

Poking fun at MLB’s steriod problem is not going to lesson its dangers and encourage youth to try it. The players making big $$ and getting away with it has and will do far more damage to youth.

Good job California Milk Processor Board and Goodby, Silverstein & Partners (who has been producing the “Got Milk?” ads since 1993)!

– Mike

P.S. My favorite is the third one (”tabloid”) where the player claims to have introduced this “substance” to a star player by the name of Javier Castillo. HHHMMMM? Sounds very similar to Jose Conseco?!

Technorati tags: MLB, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, Got Milk?, Advertising

A couple stories in the “Joplin (Mo.) Globe” and The Age (Melbourne, Australia) about citizen journalism raise some very good points about the growth of it, and benefits of it.

However, just like recent quality issues have crept up at Wikipedia, the same caution should be noted for any and all citizen journalism sites: quality.

But, in terms of quality, we’re talking about credibility, integrity and just plain verifiable facts. Yes, trained and professional journalists and have their own biases (see related post). But, you expect the truth.

With CJ reports, how can you be sure?

As Clyde Bentley, an associate professor at the Missouri School of Journalism, Columbia, Mo., said in the Joplin Globe piece:

“But a citizen journalist is not out to cover something, but to share it. For them, they want to tell everybody about their passion.”

And, with passion, you can get opinion and even false information — purposeful or not.

As Al Gibes, online editor of the “Las Vegas Review-Journal,” said during the recent Society of Professional Journalists’ convention in Las Vegas, “[T]he increased popularity of ‘citizen journalism’ blogs meant newspapers were no longer the ‘gatekeepers’ of news and information, and had to change to avoid being superseded.”

If there is greater competition, newspapers will survive and adapt. That is good. But, just be cautious about what you read. Despite any perceived bias, traditional media is still more credible overall than citizen journalists who are not bound by ethical guidelines.

And, on that note, it looks like OhMyNews in South Korea is getting a North American counterpart with the planned Nov. 1 launch of Orato. I’ll be there when it launches, and keeping an eye on it.
– Mike

Technorati tags: Orato, OhMyNews, Citizen Journalism, Journalism, In the News

Okay, these may not be new, but they are cool. The below are some Web tools I’ve come across the past day or so, mostly dealing with maps. Enjoy!

* Gmap Pedometer: Uses Google’s superb mapping application to help record distances traveled during a running, walking and even bicycling workout.

A couple nice blog map tools, so you can see who is blogging near you.
* Blogwise-Blog Maps (beta). Its data can be loaded into your Google Earth program, if you have it. Uses Google Maps API technology.
* Feedmap.net (beta). Also uses API technology.

* For those parents out there, you’re likely familiar with the sex offender database most (all?) states have. Now, you can view that information via a map, with Family Watchdog. You get just a few free trials before having to sign up for the service and pay a monthly fee.

* Google News Report: According to CyberJournalist.net, the site is a way to:

“track the most-ranked sources on Google News. [It] now includes rankings of the top stories, plus 16 international editions: USA, Italy, UK, India, Australia, Canada, France, Switzerland, French Canada, New Zealand, Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Germany, Austria.

The site ranks stories and sources based on the appearance day and time of headlines; the prominence on the Google News home page, the number of appearances, among other measurements.”

Try ‘em out, and let me know what you think.
– Mike

Technorati tags: Google, Google Maps API, CyberJournalist.net, Google News, Feedmap.net, Family Watchdog, Blogwise, Google News Report

Well, if you haven’t been to FedExFurniture.com lately, it looks like Jose Avila’s 15 minutes of fame is over. (Unless you want to read his blog.)

I suppose FedEx’s lawyers got to him.

Or, maybe Mr. Avila simply saved up enough money and bought real furniture.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, then, “Move on with your life, folks. There’s nothing to see here any more. Move along.”
– Mike

Technorati tags: Tags? We ain’t got no tags….I don’t have to show you any stinking tags! (If that is lost on you, see here.)

Mike Bawden had a great post about branding, what it means, and how it can be confused.

A comment to his post also raised a valuable question about defining branding.

Actually, any confusion over branding is the cowboys’ fault. (Just joking.)

True branding is not signage or a logo or a slogan. It is as Mike described it:

“[B]randing is a result and not a tactic. We like to tell people that ‘branding is not a business strategy, it’s an inevitability.’” (The comment referred to a branding story in Fast Company.)

As my employers’ noted in a MarketingProfs.com article (pitched and placed by me, BTW):

“A brand is a unique collection of values that a product or service brings to the marketplace.”

You could also add a company, along with a product or service.

Branding, as Bawden said, “is not a business strategy, it’s an inevitability.”

Maybe those in marketing and communications should agree on a set term for branding. It’ll make all of our jobs easier.
– Mike

Technorati tags: branding

For a bit of global perspective, take a look at what Indian blogger Gaurav Sabnishas run into.

Basically it’s what we’ve seen a lot of in the states: An employee getting in trouble for blog posts.

He wasn’t fired, but submitted his resignation to IBM, rather than retract his comments about the Indian Institute of Planning & Management (where he attended school. UPDATE, 10/20: Gaurav Sabnis did not atted IIP&M. See comments.).

It’s healthy to keep a global perspective on blogging. And, what’s happening here is really no different than what is happening around the globe.
– Mike

Technorati tags: blogging, India

This is just so, so very wrong in the world of public relations. (Thank’s to Jeremy Pepper’s POP! PR blog (last sentence in the post) for the link to Gawker.)

Maybe I’m old fashioned, but to try to curry favor with the media by gifts? YUCK!

Yes, PR is about relationships. And, trusted relationships with members of the media is not about sucking up with gifts. The core of it is about providing good news the media’s readers want.

I can go into more detail, but I’ll leave it for another post. It’s late (or early), and time for my beauty rest.

Good night!
– Mike

Technorati tags: POP! PR, Gawker, Pantene, Public Relations

A lot has been blogged about PR and blogs. Dave Taylor of Intuitive Systems says that “blogs are the future of PR.” (By way of the Rocky Mountain News.)

Wrong. Very wrong.

Yes, they are — now and in the future — part of public relations. But, like other tools and avenues for communication, they are just part of the present and future of public relations.

As blogs continue to go mainstream and even trade (B2B), they will be a growing part of PR and other communications efforts. But they won’t explode overnight. There are enough studies that say online access and use will not be there for the vast majority of the public. PR — and other — professionals need to be open to all forms of media.

Taylor says the future of PR is about blogs, and traditional news releases being sent to the media is dead.

Comments like that are very myopic.

If you have a consumer-focused client, then yes, blogs are important. But, the more traditional ways of public and media relations are still valid for the various audiences. Newspapers, TV and radio, and Web portals will still be vital part of PR campaigns. Plus, there’ll be grassroots efforts, corporate social responsibility, community relations, etc.

It all depends on what the company needs, what strategies it is pursuing, and the best ways to achieve those goals.

For B2B or trade PR, blogs are not the best way for many industries. It all depends on how your customers and prospects use the Web, if at all. Some industries don’t. Some do.

And, whether trade or consumer, it depends on your geographical markets. A local or regional company may not find it feasible to invest time and $$ into a blog.

In the RMN article, Taylor makes a number of good points about blogs being an effective way of two-way dialogue between businesses and customers, blogs increasing the “findability” of companies on the WWW, and that, if you are to blog, companies need to be commited.

But, those who tout blogs as the holy grail don’t really know public relations.

–Mike

Technorati tags: Blogging, Public Relations, Rocky Mountain News, Dave Taylor, Intuitive Systems

There’s a lot of talk about corporate blogging. But, one group that really benefits from blogging is the trade association.

While many/most have their newsletters, magazines and even e-mail communication, blogs are another great way to:

> Communicate with their members, and other stakeholders.
> Engage members in a conversation/debate on issues that matter to the association.
> Give the association a personality, which can be particuarly important in media and public relations.
> Quickly alert members about political, media and other pertinent issues that arise.

That last point is what the National Association of Manufacturers did Thursday. The topic takes ABC to task for its “Loose Nukes” story.

Yes, association Web sites are great for communication, but it’s only one-way.

To effectively serve its members, associations need a regular give-and-take, and an open line of two-way communication. Blogs do that.

Can you think of any other good association blogs?
– Mike

Technorati tags: blogging, National Association of Manufacturers, trade associations, ABC News