A take on Net Neutrality that even my kids will get. Watch it. Pass it around. Speak up.
Feedflare for New PR Digg Site
Constantin Basturea has posted step by step instructions for Feedburner users to add an “Add to New PR” feedflare to their posts. (Mine should show up at the end of this post.)
The instructions are very clear. Even a total coding incompetent like me was able to follow them and successfully add the feedflare to my Feedburner feed.
Thank you Constantin for another great addition. You are making the New PR Digg site an even more accessible resource.
Society for New Communications Research calls for awards nominations
Shel Holtz points out that the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) has opened nominations for its new awards program.
The SNCR says that the awards “will recognize excellence in the use of new communications models and solutions.” Nominations must be submitted by September 8, 2006 and the awards will be granted later in the autumn at the society’s inaugural research symposium. Case studies for the winning awards will be published in the society’s online New Communications Review.
Rick Spence asks for input on readers' podcast preferences
Business writer Rick Spence has been asked by a friend (wonder who?) to start a podcast. Before doing so, Rick wants to learn more about his readers’ interest in podcasting.
He asks:
Do you listen to podcasts? Where, and when? Do you listen live, or download to an iPod? Do you have favorites you listen to regularly? Why do you listen to them? What have you gotten out of them?
Help Rick make up his mind about whether to podcast. Tell him about your podcast habits.
PR Girlz join the conversation
Another blog has joined the Thornley Fallis community – PR Girlz.
Public relations is an industry that is populated predominantly by women – at this year’s PRSA Counselors Academy, one presenter suggested that approximately 70% of PR practitioners are female.
And yet, PR bloggers are overwhelmingly male.
This imbalance became the topic of conversation in our office. And it spurred several of the women in Thornley Fallis to action. They decided to launch a group blog, PR Girlz. Jennifer Nebesky, the first of the PR Girlz to post, said:
I decided to enter the world of blogging when I noticed that there were not many women in the blogosphere talking about public relations…the glorious and the not so glorious work we do. It is my mission to get the conversation about women in PR started…who knows, one day we might dominate the social media world just like we dominate the PR world – one can only dream!
Welcome to the PR Girlz. We look forward to having you as part of our community.
Shel Israel outlines Global Neighbourhoods; asks for comments
Shel Israel has posted a preliminary overview of his new book project, Global Neighbourhoods. And he’s asking readers for advice about how he can make the book stronger, tighter and more useful.
Israel introduces the new book in the following way:
In some ways, Global Neighborhoods will be a sequel to Naked Conversations. I have great pride in the last book, but was never completely happy with the last section in which we attempted to paint a big picture that went beyond blogging into something called a Conversational Era. While accurate, the term has not caught on, nor do I think it is suited to describe the enormous fundamental change being created by a connected world. Global will attempt to paint a bigger picture of what the world, and large organizations will look like a few years down the line from today. Naked Conversations examines the cause of the change. This time I am more concerned with the effects of the change.
Read the rest of Shel’s overview and give him your input. It’s our chance to shape Shel’s thinking before he leaves for his world research tour with Rick Segal.
Are you a member of my community?
My community is the people whose blogs I read and communicate with. My community is also the people who read my thoughts on this blog. Some enter into a conversation through comments and trackbacks. Some are silent.
The people who I read and link to may be much more important to me than I am to them.
It’s a bit like the false intimacy we all feel with Katie Couric or Peter Mansbridge. They sit across the room from us every evening and project their personalities onto the world around us. We feel like we know them. But they know us only as demographics and ratings.
Celebrities have known this false intimacy for years in the people who walk up to them, address them by their first name and start to ask questions about the personal details of their lives.
The blogosphere is a bit like that. In the PR world, I regularly read Hallett, Holtz, Hobson, Israel, Eggertson, Jones, Baradell, Basturea, Defren, McKay, Cody, Rubel, Clarke, Jenkins, Papacosta, Demopoulos, Sansone, and Fallis. I frequently comment or trackback to their sites. Of course, I am only one of dozens of people who do this. So, if I asked these folks if they think of me as part of their community, I wouldn’t kid myself about their answer. Some would respond with “Who’s Joe Thornley?” Others might go so far as to say, “I know him. He comments or leaves trackbacks to my site from time to time.” Does this make me part of their community? Maybe. But very much on the periphary. Is this bad? Not at all. Community is built over time.
The traffic numbers on my site tell me that there are many people who read my blog, but who have yet to comment on it or link to it. I’d like to know who you are.
So, a request. Please help me to know my community better. Leave a comment on this post to let me know who you are, what part of the world you hail from and what you do. (e.g. PR, advertising, student, etc.) And if you have your own blog, please write a brief post with a trackback to this article. I want to add you to my blogroll.
Then, check back to see who considers me part of their community.
Constantin Basturea's new site gives PR practitioners a vote
Constantin Basturea has launched a New PR site that enables readers to vote for articles on public relations topics.
Constantin is also the force behind the PubSub PR Community list and the NewPR Wiki. Here he is delivering yet another concept to draw PR practitioners together as a community.
On the New PR site, bloggers submit their news articles from their sites using an easy posting form. Posters may submit an image and a summary of their article, both of which will appear with the article title and URL on the New PR site. Articles can also be assigned to an appropriate PR category (e.g. blog relations, employee communication, ethics.)
Visitors to the site can comment on an article or “promote” it by casting a vote. Tabs enable the visitor to view the most recently posted articles or the headlines of articles ranked by number of votes.
Appealing to the “ego factor”, the site also shows registered users how many “Props” they have received for articles they posted.
A Forum allows visitors to conduct discussions on a traditional discussion board. Not surprisingly, one of the first strings dealt with the issue of bloggers voting for their own articles.
Bottom line: Yet another intriguing riff on social media from Constantin. Digg it!
Tom Keefe turns the lights back on at CommaKazi Speek
It was a long time between posts – 9 months, in fact – but Tom Keefe has fired up the generators and brought CommaKazi Speek back to life.
Tom, who delivered a presentation on building online communities at the 2006 IABC Conference in Vancouver, currently is preparing a presentation to the management of Volkswagen Credit, where he works, on the benefits of social media. Hopefully, Tom will be successful in convincing his management team to engage in social media and he will be able to share the insights he gains from their efforts in this area.
Welcome back Tom. We missed you.
David Maister asks for advice on creating awareness
Management guru and author David Maister has posted a request for advice on how to reach a broader audience with his blog and podcast.
Over the years I have read and benefited from David Maister’s wisdom in several of the books he has authored and co-authored.
So, I’d like to give something back to David by offering my thoughts on what he should do.
First, David, I’d advise you to start by reflecting on the nature of blogs and podcasts. Blogs and podcasts are not based on the broadcast model. They are based on the notions of community, sharing and conversation. In this medium, number of readers is less important than the quality of the relationship you have with those who become part of your community by visiting or subscribing to your RSS feed.
A passionate core community can help you achieve your objective. For example, you’ve reached me. I’ve read your books and now I recommend them to others who lead public relations consultancies. I buy copies of your books for new employees, ensuring that tomorrow’s leaders become familiar with you and your teachings. I link to your blog and note when others share my enthusiasm for you. And I’ve added you to my blogroll.
I’ve done all of this because I run a public relations firm and I subscribe to the perspective on trusted relationships and professionalism. I try to put into practice the approach your recommend in your books. And I value the insights you offer in your blog and podcast and the conversations that you spark. (In fact, you may recall that many months back I posted a comment on your blog encouraging you to add the Trackback capability so that bloggers like me could continue the conversation through postings on our own blogs.)
But that’s me. What about your other subscribers? You can learn a great deal about what draws readers to you by analysing your blog statistics and comments. The comments people offer and the number of links you get to individual postings should provide you with insight into what is popular and what draws and holds your community’s attention.
And you can be even more proactive in understanding your community. Why not conduct a survey of the subscribers to your blog and your podcast. Ask them why they have subscribed. What are they looking for? What do they value? What more or different content/features would they like you to offer? What do they do for a living? Where do they live?
This will provide you with much greater insight into what your current readers value and who they are. And you can use this information to refine the content you provide. After all, it’s all about the content.
Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson conducted a survey of listeners to their For Immediate Release podcast. And the results provided them with real insight into their audience and how they could fine tune their podcast to better serve their interests. And in this medium, the key to bigger numbers may be to drill deeper into a defined audience.
Of course, you could broaden the content of your postings to appeal to a more general audience. I think that this is the approach followed by Manager Tools. Their content is useful to anyone who works in any kind of office environment. If you were to do this, of course, you might disappoint and lose some of your core audience, who value your insight into the particular challenge of managing professional services firms.
Finally, do more of what you just did. By asking for advice, you engaged your community in a discussion. That bound them more closely to you. That generated links. And you can be sure that it increased awareness of your expertise and your blog as others read posts like this.