All right, just to make sure everyone is caught up and on the same page now, Apple CEO Steve Jobs did not have a heart attack over the weekend.

But all it took was a bogus posting to CNN’s online citizen journalism portal to demonstrate once again just how viral the web can be and and sucker punch Apple’s stock price. This has sparked plenty of commentary and navel gazing today about the risks of allowing average citizens to break so-called “news” without their scoop first being subjected to scrutiny and third-party verification. Check out Scott Karp’s take on how this was a failure of open systems and Matthew Ingram on how this was not a failure of citizen journalism.

This incident does reinforce the importance of trusted and reliable sources to bring us news and information that has in some way been confirmed and verified. The fact that CNN’s citizen journalism site, iReport, allows such misinformation to be uploaded and broadcast to the world, should serve as a wake-up call that content that’s been judged in some way is more important now than ever.

Sure, the nature of the web allowed this false report to be corrected as quickly as it was initially broadcast. But that’s irrelevant. For a period of time, those who were paying attention believed the CEO of a major publicly traded company was in a potentially life-threatening condition, with the hit to Apple’s stock price only the most obvious example of the chaos that can quickly ensure from such misinformation. As Karp says, such uncensored citizen journalism is an open invitation to those with malicious intentions to manipulate the public for their own ends. And the intent doesn’t have to be malicious for damage to be done. Someone with the most honourable of intentions can do similar harm simply by being wrong.

Of course, there should be a distinction made between eye-witness news – such as providing an account as a bystander or participant, or capturing on video a disaster or other dramatic event –and broadcasting unconfirmed rumours or outright lies. Even in this always-on world, we still need gatekeepers of some sort to make that judgment call.

Technorati Tags: citizen journalism, media, Steve Jobs, Apple, news reporting

Is it surrealist to blog about blogging? It’s not my intention, but should this post turn into an Escher-esque experience, I’ll ask you to please bear with me.

There has been considerable media coverage in recent days about corporate blogging and blogging as it pertains to B2B marketing. Forrester, a well respected technology analyst firm, recently released a study analyzing the role of blogs in b2b marketing and survey results that indicate, “The number of business-to-business (B2B) firms that started blogging in 2007 plummeted compared with 2006 as corporate bloggers ran into roadblocks stemming from a misalignment between invested effort and expected returns. Rather than cross blogging off of the marketing communication list, B2B marketers would do better to embrace one of the four strategies prominently used by bloggers to attract readers, build conversations, and engage community members in sharing their experiences with their online peers.

Four Blog Strategies Produce Community Marketing Value

Strategy One: Be A Conversation Starter, Not A Spoiler

Strategy Two: Make Blog Content Entertaining, Easy To Digest And To Use

Strategy Three: Connect The Dots Between Events And Community Involvement

Strategy Four: Invite Thought Leaders, But Coach Them On Community Etiquette”

According to The Leading Edge, a PR technology trends blog, “infrequent and boring content” is what ails the high tech companies that responded to the survey. This blog has some interesting statistics from the study and I would encourage you to visit the link above to find out more.

The bottom line is that blogging, like any other marketing activity, should adhere to best practices. Those companies that are not deriving value from this particular communication channel are probably not meeting all of the challenges inherent with utilizing a new method of communication to reach customers, influencers and prospects. Since blogging was the “hot, new thing,” you would be hard pressed to find a company that hasn’t at least considered hopping on the bandwagon and starting its own blog. Those that are likely to be successful, though, are the ones that carefully considered the reasoning behind the blog, the objectives that the companies were hoping to accomplish by starting their blogs, and how this channel could support their full range of marketing activities.

Coming up with fresh, intelligent, conversation-starting blog posts with regularity can be challenging, to be sure, but whether the effort and potential return on investment are worthwhile is a question that each company must answer for itself before diving headlong into blogging.

Technorati Tags: blogging, public relations

One of this morning’s newsletters directed me to a fellow blogger’s post on all of the silly reasons you don’t need PR. The post was written with the blogger’s tongue firmly in cheek and had me chuckling, but I’m sorry to report that, silly as they may seem in this context, we hear these points all too frequently as arguments against the business case for engaging with a PR company like ours.

Today on MediaBistro, I was directed to a piece on Portfolio’s web site that talks about WashingtonPost.com’s tinkering with its links on several microsites to enable instant pop-ups of additional data on mouse rollover that doesn’t necessitate leaving the site. This is nothing new to those of us familiar with WordPress blogs as the Snap feature currently used on this site and others does the same thing. Some grumblings in the media about the glut of interactive content on online news sites fly in the face of the theory I introduced yesterday in my post about online news and the process being the product. Is this indicative of a widespread dislike for too much dynamic content or a holdover of viewing the new media with old media sensibilities, the very point of the Buzz Machine article that spawned yesterday’s post?

I read an interesting blog post today at Buzz Machine on the changing nature of the media. The post illustrates that news, unlike in the print-only days, has mutated online such that it’s a collaborative endeavour best summed up by the following Marshall McLuhan-esque line from the article, “In print, the process leads to a product. Online, the process is the product.”

The post has a number of charts and diagrams to help illustrate this point and it did get me thinking with the axiom that with online media, the process is the product. Indeed, since I began my career in media relations close to a decade ago, generating media coverage has changed considerably. It used to be that this was a clearly defined process and that once the article had been published, that was that. Now, with the organic nature of the web, a variety of other voices can be added to the piece in the form of comments, opinions, corrections, links, and any other range of inputs.

Well-known technology blogger Om Malik stated a month ago, “I have often said that the real value of blogs lies in the intelligence embedded in the comments.” and perhaps it is fair to extend this to online news as well - the news isn’t in the news itself in the traditional sense, but in the conversations that it starts and the resultant collaborative coverage as a whole. If indeed this is true, the challenge then becomes managing one’s brand and messaging as other inputs raise their voices and add to the conversation.

Technorati Tags: Om Malik, Buzz Machine, Online news

In case you missed any of these posts the first time around, here’s a roundup of everything we published this month.

Francis
India a challenging but promising market, entrepreneurs hear
inmedia’s “Team iPhone” triggers productivity crash
It’s easy building green

Danny
Do social networking sites play a role in B2B PR?
Tools are great, but they can’t do PR!
Checking out the Scottish Technology Showcase
Top business mags embrace social networking

Linda
Bulldog Reporter weighs in about online newsrooms
Best practices for your online newsroom
Providing the media with the tools they need to cover your company
Database maintenance
Components of an integrated PR program: Media monitoring

Jill
When and how to inquire about editorial calendar opportunities

inmedia
Not all journalists are angry
Major publisher of technology media titles declares bankruptcy

Peter Kemball
2008 Canadian budget a boon for entrepreneurs

Technorati Tags: public relations, PR, media relations, B2B PR, B2B public relations, online newsrooms, press center, iPhone, social networks, 2008 Canadian budget, Ziff Davis bankruptcy

Since writing my last post about social networking and PR, I have learned about recent social networking tie-ins involving two of the world’s leading business publications, Fast Company and Business Week.

Fast Company kicked things off earlier this month, with company president, Edward Sussman, stating that it was “the first major media website to tackle the following problem: Can a business publication blend journalism and online community to create something better than either by itself?”

And then there was this week’s news that Business Week is partnering up with LinkedIn, the popular networking site for business professionals.

Both deals show a keen interest on the part of major media to broaden their horizons to include social networking. Great to see this kind of positive response from the top tier of the media sector.

Technorati Tags: social networking, social networks, social media, business media, business magazines, business publications, journalism, online community, Fast Company, Business Week

Supported by the recent news of AOL’s acquisition of popular social networking site Bebo for $850 million, it is clear that the phenomenon continues to be considered an influential and valuable market segment.

And there is little doubt that social networking represents a significant new marketing channel for consumer-oriented products companies. Indeed, there are already many strategies and approaches out there advising on just such a topic, and viral marketing has never been so popular as a result.

But what does it mean for the B2B sector? Are social networking strategies an important PR component for companies selling enterprise software solutions or new server technology?

Well, we’re probably not talking Facebook or Bebo here. As far as I’m aware, these sites don’t yet host large groups of CIOs swapping tales of ROI and disaster recovery strategies.

But social networking extends beyond the realm of those well-known sites, and there are networks catering to members holding virtually every job description known to humankind.

Still, although such networks do present opportunities for PR professionals, any strategy to target them should be carefully considered. You can’t join a networking group and then start spamming everyone with your news releases… well, I suppose you can, but you won’t be in the group for very long!

A consumer product company will seek to generate excitement and interest for its products among social networkers in its target demographic, and a B2B vendor must seek to do the same. And in doing so to a (usually) well-educated and (almost always) sceptical audience, the approach and method must be well thought out.

As with contributions to conventional media outlets, companies seeking to influence such networks must present value to the audience and should not embark on blatant pitches for business. Providing relevant, interesting and thought provoking content is key.

Social networking is all about sharing - and this philosophy must be upheld by those seeking to take advantage of it.

Technorati Tags: social networking, social networks, public relations, PR, B2B public relations, B2b PR

January has been a long and busy month, with many current and potential clients eager to ramp their public relations programs. Looking back, it seems we’ve covered quite a bit of ground this month, everything from niche media outlets to PR measurement to the pros and cons of embargos and exclusives. Here’s a roundup of our blog entries, as well as some of the posts and bloggers that caught my attention in January.

January 2008

Francis
Five ways to dazzle a potential employer
Gay Acadian dog lovers, and other market niches
Fiction: Public relations can’t be measured
‘You have no privacy. Get over it.’
Embargos, yes; exclusives, no
It’s a small world after all

Danny
Embargos and how to use them effectively
If you want expertise and ROI, hire an expert
Analyze this (continued)
Going beyond no

Linda
Is journalist burnout the reason for escalation of the Hacks vs. Flacks war?
Revisiting the hacks vs. flacks job satisfaction debate
There’s a publication for every niche
Keeping up momentum after the PR launch

Jill
Preparing for a media launch
Why critical paths are critical
Links to Canadian, US, international and online newspaper lists

Blogs on my radar

Do you know whom you are pitching?
Melanie Seasons wrote a great piece on blogger relations, sharing a list of questions to ask before pitching bloggers.

If Consulting Clients Were Dogs, Wouldn’t We Train Them Better?
Eric Eggertson reminds us how important it us to manage client expectations.

Media Bullseye
I have been enjoying Media Bullseye’s blog and podcast summaries. Reading their PR Blog Jots is a great way to stay on top of popular and interesting posts that are making the rounds. Their PR Pod Jots are prefect for anyone who is having trouble finding time to listen to PR and marketing podcasts.

Del.icio.us bookmarks as measurement?
While comments, trackbacks and hits are often used as metrics for measuring the success of blog posts, Shell Holtz suggests looking at the number of people who save a post as a del.ici.ous bookmark. Using this metric, it seems our post with links to newspaper lists was of most interest to del.ici.ous users, with two people adding it to their bookmarks.

10 Ways to Get Coverage in Features (and only one is Response Source)
Sally shares a list of ideas you can use when looking to position your client as an expert source in feature articles. This is only one of many great blog posts written by the authors of Getting Ink.

Technorati Tags: public relations, PR, media relations, blogger relations, pitching bloggers, blog measurement metrics, blog measurement, embargos, embargoes, niche media, pr measurement, public relations measurement, analyst relations, media launch, pitching journalists

A recent study shows that more than one in four Canadians have a Facebook profile. Though I haven’t managed to find any Canadian statistics, in the U.S., as popular as it is, Facebook is not the fastest growing social network. Instead, it’s LinkedIn, the professional networking site that enables you to connect with prospects through people that are already in your network, that boasts the largest growth. Nielsen ratings shows that LinkedIn experienced 189% growth rate over the past year and its membership is at 17 million and climbing.

With Facebook gaining momentum in Canada, and with the huge growth of LinkedIn, it’s clear that social networks are becoming more pervasive in people’s lives – both personal and professional. From a business perspective, there is tremendous potential to form introductions to recruits or employers, partners or prospective customers, not to mention keeping in touch with your existing network of contacts, colleagues, classmates and the like.

In terms of prospecting, because users are encouraged to contact others only through contacts that they have already established, there is an implied endorsement from an existing contact of yours and therefore level of trust that wouldn’t exist with a cold call, virtual or otherwise. Recommendations and other features – the site just updated with a slew of new features yesterday - make the site a more experiential destination than it was in its earlier incarnation.

The membership of LinkedIn is quite different from that of Facebook, though the demographics are shifting as more young people enter the business world and expect to integrate their existing online lives with their careers. “A quarter of [young] consumers believe career advancement and jobs-related networking is an important function of social networks.”

“Founded in 2003, LinkedIn is targeting a lucrative market: 225 million white-collar workers worldwide. Its demographic is in the same elite class as the readership of the Wall Street Journal. The average member’s annual income is $106,000 and the average age is 41, [LinkedIn CEO, Dan] Nye said.”

If you’re not already using social networks for business purposes, it’s perhaps time to sign up and add this popular tool to your networking routine.

Technorati Tags: LinkedIn, Facebook, social networking, business networking,