Archive for September, 2008

Several people have complained to me that they can’t find the search function in the new design layout and they’re having difficulty figuring out how to find people to follow on Twitter.  The solution is to use the directories that are spinging up – TwitDir or Twitterholic.

According to several blog posts conparing the two services, TwitDir is the most accurate and up to date. 

It’s a great tool.  Use it to find people, find who to follow and to see who’s writing about a person, topic or company. Add it to your listening and reputation management activities. It can help you find the influential voices on any given subject. And if you use it, make a donation.  I’d hate to see this site disappear one day, ike Tweetboard did..

Image by Striatic

When blogs first arrived on the scene a few years back, who’d have thought they’d become a mainstream source of information that permeated US society across all age groups?

According to MarketTools blogs, communities and social networks have indeed become a part of life for most Americans, with nearly 70% visiting these sites and about one in five visiting them every day, And we’re going to these sites more often than we did just six months ago. Almost half (47%) of us are influenced by these sites on our buying choices.

A new study out from Phocus Wright addresses some of the myths about online travel behavior:

1. Fewer people are buying travel online:  Not so, says the study. In fact the number is on the rise. In 2007, approximately 70% of online travelers (that is, adults who have taken a commercial air trip and stayed at a hotel for leisure in the past year, and used the Internet in the past 30 days) bought travel online, compared to 63% in 2006
2. Online travel shoppers use supplier sites than online travel agencies.  While this is a widespread perception, online travel agencies are making a comeback, says Phocus Wright.
3. Travel agencies are experiencing a resurgence as travelers return to traditional purchasing channels. In reality, even many formerly exclusive offline buyers are migrating online for travel shopping and buying.
4. The next generation of travelers prefers to do everything online. While online plays a big part in travel purchaes, less than half of what 18-28 year olds spend on travel is spent online.
5. Social networks and travel reviews have the greatest influence on travel decision-making. The NEXTgen Traveler(TM) report reveals that while social media is widespread, destination Web sites and online travel agencies are favored by nearly half of next generation travelers during the travel shopping process. 

I’d take the last one with a pinch of salt. According to research from eMarketer peer reviews and opinions online are the most trusted forms of advertising. Branded websites are at #4.  So while a searcher will visit the website or an online travel agency they are still likely to be influenced by the reviews they read.

 
Search and social media should be top of the list for any hotel or travel company.  Create articles in RSS Feeds and add images and video.  Make it easy for visitors to leave opinions, reviews or comments on your articles.

Over the last decade searches for porn have dropped from 20 percent to 10 percent and the hottest searches are now for social networking sites.  Now there’s a great statistic.  It’s from Bill Tancer’s book “Click: What Millions of People are Doing Online and Why It Matters.”

“As social networking traffic has increased, visits to porn sites have decreased,” said Tancer, GM of Hitwise.  He noted that  the 18-24 year old age group particularly was searching less for porn. “My theory is that young users spend so much time on social networks that they don’t have time to look at adult sites.”

And if their social and emotional needs are net in the social networks perhaps they don’t need to go there.

Trends he highlights in the book are that people are star-struck and anything celebrity related gets attention. Since Katrina, tropical storms are high on the search list too.

You can read the first chapter here.  It’s called PPC – Porn, Pills and Casinos.

What started as a conversation on Jonathan Schwartz’ blog at Sun Micro systems has been accepted by the SEC. ON July 30th the SEC voted that a website or a corporate blog is a valid place to post corporate news.

There are new guidelines that cover how a public company can use a Web site and/or corporate blog to meet Regulation FD’s public disclosure requirements.

What could more mainstream than that?

“The last time the SEC issued guidance in this area, the idea of ’social networks’ hadn’t yet been developed, and creating a social network where shareholders could meet and exchange views was barely imaginable,” said SEC Chairman Christopher Cox. “Ongoing developments in technology have increased both the markets’ and investors’ demand for more timely company disclosure on the Web, and in turn, raised new securities law issues for public companies to consider. The guidance issued today clarifies the rules of the road so investors can gain — quickly and in a cost-effective manner — the benefits of Internet disclosure of the latest information on the companies they own or are considering buying.”

What does this mean for PR?

A public company can now put a social media press release on their corporate blog and it will be considered disclosure.  Social media newsrooms become a lot more desirable when they can be used to release corporate news.

Update 9.17.08

This is the actual wording of the SEC speech about the release of these guidelines that have to do with corporate blogs:

The release addresses antifraud issues that may arise when issuers, their officers, and employees speak on company-sponsored blogs or electronic shareholder forums. In particular, it provides guidance for companies hosting or participating in blogs or electronic shareholder forums about the applicability of the antifraud provisions to statements made by the company or by a person acting on behalf of the company. It also highlights the restrictions on a company’s ability to require investors to waive protections under the federal securities laws as a condition to entering or participating in a blog or forum.

The release acknowledges that the nature of online information is increasingly interactive, and not static. The release, therefore, makes clear that information appearing on company web sites does not need to satisfy a printer-friendly standard or be in a format comparable to paper-based information, unless the Commission’s rules explicitly require it.

If approved, the interpretive release and guidance will be effective upon publication in the Federal Register.

Last night LA Start up Yammer took top honors at TechCrunch50.  What is Yammer?  It’s a Twitter-like application for businesses. Yammer aims to make companies more productive by making it easier for employees to communicate with one another. Unlike email which goes betweeno nly a few specified peole, on Yammer you can build a company network and have a Facebook, Friendfeed, Twitter-type experience within the organzation.

The purpose of Yammer is for co-workers exchange short frequent answers to one simple question: “What are you working on?” As employees answer this question, a company feed is created in one central location, enabling co-workers to discuss ideas, post news, ask questions, and share links and other information. The company feed can be accessed in real-time via the web, IM, SMS text messaging, an iPhone application, a Blackberry application, a desktop application, or email.

Yammer also serves as a company directory in which every employee has a profile and as a knowledge-base where past conversations are archived and easily searched.

Built by genealogy company Geni for their own employees, Yammer is now a stand alone service where  anyone with a corporate e-mail can sign up and create this social media application for their company. 

“There is such a huge demand for this type of service that 10,000 people and 2,000 organizations signed up for the service the first day it launched on Monday.   Anyone with a corporate email can sign up and follow other people in their company. But if a company wants to claim its users, and gain administrative control over them, they will have to pay. It’s a brilliant business model,” said TechCrunch in the announcement of the results.

It seems you really are no-one if you’re not on Twitter!  CNN has been incorporating ‘tweets’ in their reports upped its use of Twitter content during the coverage of Hurricane Gustav.

A tweet from anchor Rich Sanchez, a faithful Twitter user,  revealed CNN will debut a new Twitter show called “Rick Sanchez Direct,” says WebProNews. 

The new show aired at 3 pm yesterday and the jury still seems to be out.

If you are not a fan of Social Media Today this is a good time to discover this blog. A slew of the top bloggers in the field of PR and social media add content there, so you get to find the best of the best in one place.  And today is their first birthday.

Here is a bit of Web 2.0 fun to brighten up your Monday morning.

Neville Hobson posted the song You’re No-one if You’re Not on Twitter on his blog.  Take a listen.  It’s very cute.

There’s been much blogging and Tweeting about TechCrunch50 and DEMOfall- two conferences where tech start ups reveal new products and services. However, you have to keep the product or service under wraps until it is seen at the conference. Which makes sense for the conference, but inventing the better mousetrap does not always mean people will beat a path to your door.  They have to know the mousetrap exists, and where the door is.

“Even though some A-list bloggers and high profile entrepreneurs have publicly implied that any good product or eloquent and outspoken CEO will easily traverse the roads cluttered with inferior startups to quickly rise to stardom simply by existing, the reality is, you really do need some-level of PR,” says Brian Solis.   Nicely put.  Any new product launch needs PR.

In this post there is a list of journalists using Twitter.  Using micro social media services like Twitter can give you access to reporters and journalists – if you do it right.

I spoke at Search Engine Strategies recently in San Jose about how to effectively tell your story in today’s new media. Micro PR and Social Media Press Releases (SMPR) are two effective ways to leverage the new PR tools.

One question I get asked often is what can we use to build the SMPR?  You ned some tool that hosts your news content in a social platform.  YOu shoudl be able to add text, images, vidoe etc yourself, tag it and share the content with social media icons.

You could build this in Wordpress if you have someone who is familiar with the platform and can modify it for you.

Or try PRESSfeed – I designed it specifically for this purpose.