A few of the folks from the Palo Alto PR 2.0 discussion got together for another chat this week. I talked with Mike Manuel, Josh Hallett and David Parmet about a post Mike did a few weeks ago on the social media services gap. We focus on the unique challenges agencies face when working in social media, and what we as workers on the frontlines can do to improve.
Listen to the podcast:
Technorati Tags: brian oberkirch, david parmet, josh hallett, mike+manuel, podcast, pr2.0, public+relations, Weblogs+Work, Weblogs+Worknotes
Tara Hunt follows up on that billion dollar ‘blogging delivered’ claim, and finds it, well, a bit wanting. So much for blogging delivered…
Who knew?
AT&T billboard on I-35 (Stemmons Freeway across from the INFOMART) in Dallas, Texas.
The Architel corporate web/blog site has been launched. The open source WordPress architecture allows the company to launch the site and make continious changes to it over time. So you can never say a site is ‘done.’ Kudos go to Dan Cederholm from SimpleBits for the xhtml/css design (as well as the new Architel logo). Weblogs Work integrated the xhtml/css into WordPress (actually three WordPress installs).
Architel is a boutique IT support company located in Dallas, Texas that supports small businesses (20-100) employees. Their unique IT service delivery model (one flat-monthly-fee for all-you-can-eat support) aligns the interests of the small business owner and Architel. The company was a pioneer in this space and is now a pioneer in the ‘blog as corporate website’ meme. Here are screenshots or just visit the site yourself here @ architel.com.
The site was entered in the website design contest at SXSW conference and we are crossing our fingers that the judges will enjoy the tight integration between the blog CMS and Dan’s xhtml and css. What do you think about our work?
As reported in the Washington Post, "Hurricane-ravaged New Orleans will deploy the nation’s first municipally owned wireless Internet system that will be free for all users, part of an effort to jump-start recovery by making living and doing business in the city as attractive as possible."
Read more about it here, here , here and here. We needed some good news!
Want to get people to remember your name? Well, start out with a cool name, say like Pajamas Media. Now change it to something boring like Open Source Media. Be sure to pick something that is either a direct or indirect infringement on someone elses trademark. Wait for the warning letter, make a little bit of a fuss, blog about it, get a few other people to blog about it (don’t worry they will have fun at your expense). Now hire a branding company and get them to suggest that you change it back to the original ‘cool’ name. At the end of the day everyone will know your new name… [via]
Just a couple of years ago everyone was looking for the next ‘new’ thing in design. I can recall sitting with the Architel guys. They wanted a new website with all of the coolness of Flash and the complexity of Amazon. This year they decided to go ‘retro’ and focus on simplicity. Check out their new site and blog interface at architel.com. Fast Company latest article titled, The Beauty of Simplicity details this new trend. Jason over at 37signals details the article , he suggests,
"staying simple on purpose"
He also expands on the idea by indicating,
The big guys are discovering what the small guys have always known. The small companies leading the way and have been for years. The big guys are following the small guys. The Less movement is bottom up, not top down. There’s a big story here. I wonder which journalist will grab it.
Drew Neisser, CEO of Renegade Marketing, predicts that,
In 2006, expect blogs to be standard items in the marketer’s playbook. Corporate blogs will continue to proliferate. Some will earn kudos for their honesty and informative nature, while others will be recognized as blatant, homogenized propaganda and ignored. Content blogs (such as www.AfterHoursCity.com) will deliver “street cred” for marketers smart enough to create their own slice of aggregated info and brave enough to let the consumer-generated content run unfiltered.
Brian coined the phrase and now marketers like Drew are using it. "Blog Monitoring" services are going to be huge according to Drew,
Blog “Monitor” will be the newest, hot job in corporate communications, as marketers try to stay up on both the positive and negative buzz in the marketplace (Dell found out the hard way the importance of this role, as Jeff Jarvis’s “Buzz Machine” shamed them into replacing his malfunctioning computer). Consumer blogs will continue to multiply as mobile devices like Sony’s AIBO support blogging on the fly. Blog networks like WebLogsInc will make it easier for marketers to advertise on these sites, especially the ones that attract consistent audiences with quality writing.
Finally, Drew suggests that partnership between big players and smaller, niche players (like WeblogsWork) will become the norm, not the exception,
In the last few months alone, smaller agencies have delivered slap shots to the biggies, stealing away such prestigious accounts as Heineken, Volkswagen, Sprite and British Airways. Agencies like Mother, Strawberry Frog, Renegade Marketing and Crispin Porter and Bogusky (the Wayne Gretsky of the idea pack) are among a handful of firms that are building reputations for delivering channel neutral multi-disciplined campaigns, and driving what will be an enormous shift in how clients approach their agencies in 2006. Big clients are already starting to see the benefits again of having multiple partners, and asking each for “media neutral” ideas; it might not be long before clients designate one firm as the “idea agency”, tasked with coming up with the media & channel neutral idea, while other firms are tasked with execution according to their specialty.
Run a newspaper? Who is enemy number one? Craig Newmark. Why? Craigslist. Free classified ads have taking a painful bite out of newspaper’s revenues. Now Craig has announced that he is going to launch a citizen journalism project that will mirror the "wisdom of the masses" strategy offered by Craigslist. Should newspapers worry? Nah, it will never work… Craigslist is just a fad… Everyone wants to pay for ads… [via]
John Moore asks, "Who are the ad creeps behind this ad creep? Parking Stripe Advertising are the creeps." Wonder how much Home Depot is making?
Last year advertisers were scared to advertise on blogs according to BL Ochman because, "Fear, ignorance and the knowledge that a lot of pioneers got shot." Well that is all over.
Scores of advertisers like Audi and Budget Car Rental are using blog advertising with great success. Read BL’s post here.
Folks like BL Ochman and Hugh Macleod bet their careers on blogging. BL and Hugh used to chat on the phone and ask one another,
"Should we get jobs? Are we nuts? Will anyone ever hire us as bloggers?"
Today it is lucrative and all-consuming for more and more marketing folks. Hugh’s so busy he doesn’t have time to answer his own email anymore…
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