"Podcast" - Word of the Year

CNet reports that Podcast is word of the year. Its amazing how fast the popularity of this word has grown! Last year it was rejected because not enough people were using it. I have found podcasts to be quite useful to listen to while I am cleaning the kitchen or doing other tasks on the o computer. I'm a REAL geek, I run my laptop through my stereo system and us my cordless speakers to listen anywhere in the house.

Google Source of 10.8 % of Visitors to Retail Websites

Hitwise reports that search remains a major source of visitors to e-tailers contributing 17.9 percent of all visits for the week of December 3rd. Google led in search engine referrals, having provided 10.8 percent of all visits to online retailers. Yahoo Search and MSN Search accounted for 4.1 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively.

Online Advertising Reaching the "Tipping Point"

Brian Morrissey at Ad Week reports that Web ad spending will increase to $55 billion worldwide within the next five years. They report that big advertisers like Absolut Vodka, General Motors and Ford earmark 20 percent of their marketing budgets to Internet marketing.

Latino Lingo - Growth of Online Marketing

Wilson posted a link to an interesting article called Surfing in two Worlds.
He states that marketing to Hispanics online is up 33% as compared to last year.

Proposed Extensions To RSS To Share Calendars And Other Things

I just read the latest post from Ray Ozzie at Microsoft. He and his group are proposing a new addition to the RSS protocol called SSE (Simple Sharing Extensions) to allow asynchronous sharing of data between multiple sources. What does this mean in ENGLISH???? -->

It means when this is implemented RSS can be extended to synchronize calendars, address lists, task lists, project plans or anything else that needs multiple source updates from ANY application that supports the standard. Microsoft is releasing this under the Creative Commons License, so it will be freely available to all. This is awesome! All the geeky details are here.

This is yet another example of how SUBSCRIBE is the next evolutionary step on the internet

My First Skype Call

Well the big news this week is that Skype has released version 2.0 beta that supports high definition streaming video.

I made my first Skype call today with a colleague in the UK. The quality was excellent! I was so impressed, I am talking about rolling this out to more employees at Mason. In the past, I tried the voice over IP options with Yahoo, MSN and AOL IM, but none were as clear and natural as Skype. I recommend checking it out especially since it's free!

Nice Introduction to RSS

RSS enables the next evolutionary step on the internet with the ability to consolidate information and subscribe. Wizard Creek Consulting has a great introduction and tutorial to bring you up to speed on Really Simple Syndication. Check it out here.

Spambots Gotcha Down?

Looking for a good way to stop spammers from harvesting email addresses off of your website?
Check out http://www.mways.co.uk/prog/hidemail.php. Here you can generate javascript to post that obscures your actual address, but still works when you click on it.

Here is what my address looks like as javascript ;-)

Spambots say --> Huhhhh?

But click here to see what it looks like on the web...

Naked Conversations: Starting with Scoble: Bumps & Brilliance

Shel writes about one year ago when Robert suggested the blog2book idea.
Hopefully they have started a trend! I think this process worked extremely well for Naked Conversations. Are there other books that could benefit from this approach? hmmm.... Let me know what you think.

Travelocity focuses on RSS technology

According to eyefortravel.com, Travelocity is enabling RSS feeds to notify subscribers when there is a lower fare. Here's another great example of an application of RSS. This shows further evolution of the next phase of the internet. When the web started catching on people surfed. As the number of websites continued to grow, people searched. We are starting to see the next phase where people will subscribe.

"Each day, Travelocity searches thousands of flights to identify low fares. Travelocity's new RSS feed will ensure that when Travelocity finds a low fare to a subscriber's favorite destination, an alert is communicated to that subscriber through their RSS news reader of choice (i.e., My Yahoo!, My MSN, NewsGator, Pluck, etc.). Subscribers simply create a personalized RSS feed by selecting their own customized list of preferred destinations or choosing from Travelocity's recommended destinations by trip type. As subscribers review their daily RSS reader, Travelocity's feed will provide customized travel information, news on discounted fares, and special offers. When they're ready to check availability for a flight, one click takes them directly to Travelocity."

Online Ad Revenue Up Nearly 34% For The Third Quarter

DM News reports that online advertising revenue jumped to 3.1 billion in the third quarter. They report that it is anticipated that online ad revenue for 2005 will jump more than 20 percent from last year's $9.6 billion and might cross a record $12 billion in sales for the year.

Google Suspends Analytics Sign-ups

PC Word reports that Google has suspended new sign ups to the free Analytics system. When new users visit analytics.google.com they get a message saying "Google Analytics has experienced extremely strong demand, and as a result, we have temporarily limited the number of new signups as we increase capacity."

Ray Ozzie Is Blogging (again)

I was reading Ray Ozzie's latest post. Now that he is Chief Technical Officer for Microsoft he has decided to fill us in from time to time about what he is up to. He hints that he may post some neat little tidbits next week.

I started reading his history and found it very interesting that he was hired back in the 1981 by Dan Bricklin at VisiCalc (the inventor of the first spreadsheet program and predecessor of Lotus 123). He was then Hired by Lotus and is the inventor of Lotus Notes.

Quite a impressive career to say the least. Microsoft purchased his company Groove Networks. It will be interstate to see how they integrate Groove's technology as they start to roll out more web based services.

I have added Ray's blog to my required reading list. More to come...

Cringley's Latest Theory on goggles Future Plans

This is a really interesting read (like always for Cringley). He discusses the idea of Google utilizing all the dark fiber they have purchased to make a distributed server farm to run all those cool applications they keep releasing and all the new ones coming up.

Worth a read, let me know what you think.

RC Bigelow Hires Mason

AdWeek reports on Mason PR acquiring RC Bigelow as a client. The tea segment is booming (from $2 billion in 1990 sales to $6 billion last year)!

Bigelow has purchased the last working tea plantation in the United States. Mason is helping to develop this as a destination for visitors to the Charleston area.

Looks like fun. Very cool!

5 Star Amazon Review of Naked Conversations

I just posted my 5 star review of Naked Conversations on Amazon. They say it will be posted in a day, but I don't see any other reviews posted yet, so they may be waiting until the book comes out in January...

Anyway, here is what I wrote:

This book is a wonderful exploration of the world of blogging. This isn't a book that tells you 'how to blog' but instead gives you concrete examples of 'why to blog'.

The authors talk about how blogs are a wonderful way to carry on a conversation with your customers and build relationships. They describe in detail how blogging can give you the opportunity to boost your credibility in a world that is becoming more and more cynical of traditional marketing and PR tactics.

The Mason Technologist - Top 20% According to PubSub

The latest PubSub reporting shows The Mason Technologist moving up from unranked in the beginning of October to now in the top 20%!

Google is Offering Free Web Analytics Software

Google has announced that they are offering Google Analytics for free (previously called Urchin). Urchin was originally $500 a month, after Google purchased the company they dropped the price to $199 and now it's FREE. The catch? -- For unlimited use, you need to be an AdWords customer. Non-AdWords customers are limited to 5000 page views a month.

Forbes Has Thrown a Rock In the Bee's Nest

The cover story for the November 14th issue of Forbes is called "Attack of the Blogs"
Shel Isreal has written a thoughtful letter to the author Daniel Lyons.

This article is so one sided it makes me wonder if they are trying to be as sensational as possible to sell magazines.

I intercepted our CEO's copy and tucked Shel's letter right on the front page. I then went up to his office and told him to read the letter BEFORE reading the article.

Thanks Shel!

DaimlerChrysler Is Listening -

Randall McAdory from DaimlerChrysler was interviewed by chiefmarketer.com. It's good to see my former employer is 'with it' when it comes to tracking the conversation online. McAdory obviously understands the importance of the blogosphere in not only getting unfiltered feedback on their brand, but also as a way to research and uncover new trends.

Many other companies have learned the hard way that ignoring this segment can be very damaging to the brand. Two top examples are Dell Computer and Kryptonite Locks. In both of these cases, they ignored the issues and got burned.

DC needs to take part in the conversation as well. I think starting up their own DaimlerChrysler blog is a crucial next step.

Received My Copy of Naked Conversations!

Looks like I might be one of the last people to receive the galley copy of Shel and Robert's new book Naked Conversations. I started reading it tonight and have completed the first three chapters. It is extremely well done. I found myself nodding my head and talking to the book! I guess this is because I have been used to reading the chapters online and then 'talking' back by posting comments on the book blog. ;-)

Before receiving my copy, I was wondering - "How different will the book be then the chapters posted in the blog?" (I believe I actually posted something to that effect on the book blog). Well I have to say, I really hope this blog2book idea catches on! The galley copy that I am reading is very well organized, engaging, flows easily from one topic to the next and (most importantly) keeps my attention from beginning to end. I highly recommend this book to anyone wondering what this blogging thing is all about and how they can get it started in their company.

As I have watched this book take shape and evolve over the past 6 months I have launched my own blog - The Mason Technologist, helped to organize an OPML reading list project for our clients and prospects, launched RSS feeds for many of Mason's clients including Bruegger's and Speedline and most recently helped to launch Latino Lingo (a blog about how to bridge the gap to the Hispanic market) which is taking off with leaps and bounds and is quickly becoming the goto spot for Hispanic marketing information!

I fully embrace the ideas that Robert and Shel write about in Naked Lunch and look forward to posting additional comments as I get further into the book!

Great job guys - Naked Conversations is really something to be proud of!

Cool Links to On-Line Marketing Resources

Tom Phelan over at AAAA just sent me this cool link to a complete list of links for every kind of marketing activity you could want.

The Mike's Marketing Tools Directory offers the best internet marketing books, ebooks, software programs, CDs, videos, audio CD-roms and cassette tapes, online subscriptions, and web-based services - check it out - Ecommerce Software Directory.

Latino Lingo Blog Goes Live Today

Wilson Camelo (one of the very first subscribers to The Mason Technologist), just jumped in feet first into the world of blogging today by launching his blog Latino Lingo

Wilson will be writing about the best ways to tap into the $700 billion purchasing power of the Hispanic population.

Dave Winer Sells Weblogs.com for 2.3M

Verisign has purchased the Weblogs.com pinging service. They plan on keeping it as a free service, but may add additional premium features in the future. The second I post this, it will be listed on weblogs.com ;-)

Google Releases Their Own News Reader

Check it out at reader.google.com. - Good idea to name it just 'Reader' and not limit it to just 'News Reader' or 'Blog Reader'. RSS will enable us to aggregate and read News, and blogs and websites of all shapes and sizes and all the other new things we haven't even dreamed up yet!

Pretty cool idea, you can use Google to search for RSS feeds and then automatically subscribe to them. I am still using bloglines, but I may try to clean up my OPML list and import it into Google to give it a try.

Blogs Being Added As a News Source On Yahoo

Yahoo has announced they are now listing a list of relevant weblogs.

According to Biz Report:

"Yahoo's inclusion of blogs in its news section represents another
validation for a growing group of people that are bypassing newspapers,
magazines and broadcast outlets to report and comment on topical events."

Check it out for yourself at news.yahoo.com, they show blog listings in the right hand column. Very cool!

Good Advice on Formatting HTML Email

MarketingSherpa has a great Article on basic formatting suggestions for HTML emails:

#1. Add a hotlinked text-line at the top of every message (can be in tiny type) that says something such as "Did your email system mangle this newsletter? See it Online."
Note: Don't say "Click Here" because that wording as a hotlink in an HTML-heavy message can get you filtered as a spammer in some systems.

#2. Remind your opt-ins incessantly to add your send email address to their address book which means your email won't be filtered or hurt in most systems. Best places -- on "thank you" landing page they see when they opt-in, and in your welcome-to-our-list autoresponder. Some mailers such as TJMaxx.com also add a reminder in text at the top of every HTML email they send. The bad news is, most email recipients are lazy especially when it comes to commercial email. They leave address settings on default, they don't bother clicking to see images. Fewer than 5% of your recipients will heed you if you do both #1 and #2. But heck, those are very motivated prospects and may be among your most valuable list members.
Next:

#3. Get yourself and your email creative team sample email accounts at Gmail, AOL 9.0 etc. Keep all settings on default so you see worst possible scenario of what may happen to your HTML creative. Often you'll find yourself adding more text wording to messages than you had initially. Images simply can't be relied on for the entire message. Neither can HTML click buttons. If a recipient can't see the button, they're not going to click.

Technoroti Blogging Survey Results Published

View the results of the survey here.

To me the most interesting statistic was on the question "When looking for product information which do you trust most?" Nearly 63% said that they trust other bloggers more then any other source. As the blogosphere continues to grow every day, the free flow of information and the collective conversation grows with it. Word of mouth now moves at the speed of electrons.

As Rich Edelman writes in his blog:

The survey shows a disconnect between the ways companies have traditionally communicated with the blogosphere and how these bloggers want and expect to be communicated with now. The top-down, one-way, press release culture has to be supplanted by an approach based on dialogue and co-creation of brands and corporate reputation. In fact, in many of our client programs we're already seeing a fundamental re-ordering of the relationship between markets and marketers, with the blogosphere providing a channel for real input and dynamic discussion. Smart companies have also recognized the potential for inside-out communications, with empowered employees and informed consumers as the best sources of credible commentary.

Welcome Magnet Members

Glad to have you stop by. The Mason Technologist is in the same spirit as Magnet where we can share experience, knowledge and ideas with other agencies in other parts of the country and the world. Come back often! Subscribe to my feed or subscribe via email by entering your email address at the bottom of the right hand column. I welcome your comments and feedback.

RSS Users visited Three Times as Many News Web Sites as Non-Users

The latest release from Nielson//NetRatings reported that RSS users are significantly more engaged in online news than non-users, visiting an average of 10.6 news sites compared with 3.4 news sites for non-users. Not only do RSS users visit more news Web sites than non-users, they also visit those sites more frequently. Thanks to Wilson for forwarding this to me!

Does Google Penalize You for Decreasing AdWords Bid Costs?

Robert Cringely's latest article documents research on how Google seems to have penalized this AdWord advertiser for decreasing his bid costs.

Any AdWords user should read this article.

Steps to get of automated voice response hell

We've all been there. Calling our bank, credit card company or cellular company and we have to hit dozens of key combinations before we can actually speak to a human.
This website details the necessary steps to cut through the voice jail.

Many systems just require you to hit zero, but quite a few are a bit trickier then that. Hopefully you don't have AT&T for cell service -- they report that AT&T wireless as "no easy escape".

This is yet another example of brand contact where many companies fall short.

You Can Own the Daily Show Set

The original Daily Show set is up for bid on EBay. 4 Days left and they are up to $1325

Apple Fans drool over the packaging!

Wired reports on a Apple fans who save the packaging and even display them tastefully backlit with lamps from Ikea!

Apple truly gets the 'brand experience' and knows that the first contact with their products is when you open the packaging. Apple makes it an event that even inspires some to take pictures of every step along the way!

Yet another example of how Apple 'gets it'.

Online Advertising - 'The Come Back Kid'

A recent emarketer survey shows that after a decrease in online spending in 2001 and 2002, spending has rebounded dramatically with double digit growth predicted through 2009.



Where are the dollars coming from? According to an InsightExpress survey, 74% of media planning and buying executives reported an increased demand for Internet ad inventory in late 2004. That figure was 23 points higher than the next most in-demand medium, cable TV. In contrast, 19% or more of respondents cited decreased demand for media such as newspapers, radio, magazines and network TV.

Cool! - An Adaptor to Plug Skype into your Regular Phone

Well the blogosphere has been buzzing about the Ebay purchase of Skype. I still haven't signed up for an account, but I think I will now -->

My old friend Tony Heh just forwarded me this link for a SKYPE USB to RJ11 adaptor.
He says he loves it. With this adaptor it allows him to make both Skype and regular phone calls as well as receive both Skype and regular phone calls all in one place!

Very cool.

Information about Google WiFi found on corporate Website

Reuters is reporting that information found on the Google FAQ page mentions a beta product called Google WiFi. This rumored service that I reported on 8/17.

Looks like the gatekeeper of the world's information could become one of the globe's biggest Internet providers and one of its most powerful ad sellers, basically supplanting telecoms in one fell swoop.

I tried finding the page referenced in the Reuters article, but didn't see it. If anyone finds it on the Google site, let me know.

9/28 Update Here are the links referenced in the article above:
http://wifi.google.com/faq.html
http://wifi.google.com/download.html

I've Been Selected to Review Robert Scoble and Shel Israel's New Book

I'm honored to have been selected to review the pre-release copy of Naked Conversations.
I have been following the writting of their book through their blog. I've really enjoyed seeing the evolution of the book and I'm really looking forward to seeing it in print.

Thanks Robert and Shel!

Bill Gates and Napoleon Dynamite Video

Cool! - The Microsoft bigwig teamed up with Napoleon Dynamite in this spoof video from PDC 2005. The camera's a little shaky, but you get the idea. Check it out on ifilm. Or Download it here.

AAAA Launches Blog for Katrina Support

The AAAA has launched a Weblog to support industry relief efforts for victims of Hurricane Katrina specifically aimed at advertising agency businesses. Located at aaaacares.blogspot.com, the blog serves as a centralized, industry conduit to help agency businesses affected by Hurricane Katrina and agencies and other businesses that would like to provide assistance. If you would like to suggest a link or provide news or information about your agency that is relevant to the relief effort, please contact Kipp Cheng AAAA's Director of Public Affairs via e-mail at kipp@aaaa.org or by phone at 212-850-0720.

Open Source Content Management System Written in C#

Picked up this little tidbit on Scoble's blog yesterday -
Free Open Source .NET CMS Impresses
Umbraco is a free, stable and standard-supporting cms that is easy to use. Open source on .NET.

They have a bunch of videos on the site demonstrating the functionality. This looks really cool!

Google Reaching out to the Agency Community

I spoke with Chris Theodoros, Director, Industry Relations for Google. He has been reading my blog and wanted to let me know that Google has started a division to help Agencies embrace the world of online advertising. Prior to coming to Google, Chris was VP of global marketing strategies for DoubleClick.

Good to know you're out there Chris! We look forward to working with you to help with our online brand contact initiative on behalf of our clients. To read more on the Google Agency Program click here.

New Division of the Mason Family Launched Today



Big news at Mason today! We have officially launched a new division called Mason y Bauzá. "MyB" Offers Bi-lingual, Bi-cultural Strategic Insights to Nation's Fastest Growing Demographic; and Unique Hispanic Readiness Program (HRP) for Companies Seeking to Market to Hispanics.

You can read more in their press release.

Congrats guys! I'm looking forward to helping on the interactive side.

Google Blog Search Goes Live

Google has launched a blog specific search engine this morning. I am interested to see the reviews. I'm also wondering if blogger.com and blogspot.com blogs get preferential treatment. Another question I have is, does this indexed information carry across to the main google search? My preliminary search seems to indicate that it doesn't. Google's blog search seems to list every one of my posts, where as the main Google engine lists only a handful and seems to list my comments on other blogs more.

A Real Alternative to TV

Over the past several days I have spent quite a bit of my 'free time' watching what would have been traditional TV programming on the web. Now that I have high speed internet I have more options available to me for video. Two in particular are really worth checking out both put out by PBS. The first is a Nova series on String Theory called "The Elegant Universe". This is a fascinating look at the evolution of general relativity and quantum mechanics and the rise of string theory as the possibility the holy grail of physics - the unifying 'theory of everything'. PBS publishes the videos in 8 minute segments which makes it really easy to grab bits and pieces as time permits. This is a really well done, highly produced production well worth the time!

The second series is NerdTV, the brain child of Robert Cringely. He describes it as Charlie Rose for nerds. Just as a funny aside, when we first got cable here the very FIRST show I watched was a Charlie Rose episode. Anyway, Cringely has interviews lined up with the best minds from nerdom. His inaugural interview is with Andy Hertzfeld, the original Macintosh systems programmer. I watched it on my laptop in the kitchen while I cleaned the dishes and made the kids lunches. It was a really informative interview. This is a much more down and dirty production. About 10 minutes into the 1 hour interview I found myself wondering why I downloaded a 100 mb movie file while I kept looking at a close up of Andy nodding and smiling repeatedly. Cringely also offers it as a audio download and a text transcript. I will probably opt for the quicker audio downloads in the future.

Anyway, kudos to PBS for embracing the web as a way to distribute their content. Its a great service and a glimpse at the future of content distribution. Good to see my PBS membership dollars being put to good use!

Mason Works with Clients To Post Links to the Hurricane Relief

Pictures of the devastation

Please Donate!

Stony Creek Town Dock, #1 [Large version]

Stony Creek Town Dock, #1 [Large version]
Originally uploaded by bokeh.

I'm really enjoying browsing through Flickr and finding jems like this

Gartner Is Recommending Investment In RSS, Blogging, Podcasting and Wikis

Read the press release

Latest Jupiter Research Blog Readers Survey

eWeek reports:

The average consumer of blogs, RSS/XML feeds and Podcasts is male, earns big bucks and, in the case of Podcasts, is a youngsterÂ?all good to know if your company is thinking about jumping into the blogosphere...

Using Blog Tools for Content Management

According to this infoworld article as blog tools become more advanced they are being looked at as an option for site content management.

...Deploying a full-blown ECM (enterprise content management) system to address basic corporate content publishing and workflow needs has been likened to trying to kill a fly with a rocket launcher. A more suitable solution may lie in souped-up blogging tools, which by design simplify content publishing.

Welcome AAAA Members!

Be sure to post a comment to let me know if you found The Mason Technologist from the link in the latest AAAA newsletter. I would love to get some feedback from other agencies to see what cool things they are doing with their clients in the online world. I hope you enjoy your visit. Come back often, you're always welcome.

Rise In Broadband - Bad News for TV

eMarketer reports on a recent study by Forrester.

By 2010, 62% of US households will have broadband access to the Internet, 53% will own a laptop and 37% will use a digital video recorder (DVR) to gain control over how and when they watch TV.

The Forrester survey, of nearly 69,000 people in the US and Canada, found that broadband Internet users watch just 12 hours of TV per week, compared with 14 hours for those who are offline. Those using a dial-up connection watch 12.5 hours of TV.

Blogpulse InfoPorn

Check out Matt Galloway's graphs on Tom and Nicole
To use Wired's term, this is some serious InfoPorn.

Matt takes the simple little search I did back on 7/12 and blows the doors off of it!
This is a really good example of how to use Blogpulse to accurately measure buzz !

National Geographic Special on 9/11

Check out this video trailer. I wish I had this channel on my cable system...

Dell Modifies Their Blog Policy

Well, according to Jeff Jarvis, Dell will now be monitoring and replying to bloggers. I wonder how long it will take them to contact this guy.

Talking About how 'Google Is Talking'

I just installed GoogleTalk, Google's long-expected entry into the IM and VoIP market, has arrived. Google Talk is a full-fledged IM client based on the open Jabber protocol with VoIP thrown in for good measure. According to Google, you can access Google Talk's servers with any Jabber-compatible client like Trillian, Gaim, Adium X, and iChat.

Have a GMail account? Let's chat...
I'm really curious to hear how it sounds.

The Value of the Press Release in Search Engine Marketing

In a recent post from Paul Chaney, he discusses the importance of optimizing press releases. He states:

"The real value of press releases these days is how they help you with the search engines. If you use a service like PR Web and pay the $30 '?donation'? you get picked up in Google News, Yahoo! News and others."

Stacy Williams reports that keyword-optimized press releases are read five times more than non-optimized releases. Not only that, the average cost per read is less than one cent.

Larry Sivitz has these SEO PR pointers on writing your presreleasese for PRNewswire and PRWeb :

• In the top portion of the page in the first sentence of the first full bodied paragraph (plain text: no bold, no italics, no style)
• In an H3 or larger heading (H1, H2) on the page
• In bold Â? second paragraph if possible and anywhere but the first usage on page. In italics - anywhere but the first usage. In subscript/superscript
• In the URL We will advise on directory name, filename, or domain name
• In an image filename used on the page
• In the Alt Text tags of any image file(s)
• In the Title Attribute of the image file(s)
• In the Link Anchor text to another site
• In an Internal linkÂ?s text to another page within the site

Pandora Rocks The House



What do Greg Brown, Martin Sexton, ColdPlay, and Supergrass have in common? Hmmmm, I don't know, what DO they have in common? Well, I plugged these singers into a new website that just launched called Pandora to see how they handled the mix. Thanks to an invite from Michael Arrington, I was able to get a sneak peak at the new music service that calculates my musical preferences based on data collected as part of the Music Genome Project.
The best part is it streams the whole song in high quality audio without any plug-ins needed!

This is the coolest service. It kept me entertained all day. It started getting a little off track at one point, but I clicked the button to tell them I didn't like the song and it kept me groovin without one repeat! Even cooler, it gave me a chance to hear some bands that I always wanted to listen to such as Apples In Stereo and Red House Painters. One thing I wish it had, was a way for me to tag an artist in my 'clips' list so I could check out more of their stuff later. I found that I ended up writing down new bands on a sheet of paper, but it would be cool to tie all this to my Pandora profile online! The other suggestion I have is to make it easier to send feedback. Right now there is a link to an email address off on a subpage somewhere. It would be easier to have a support form to help us report any bugs, errors or suggestions that we have as we test out the system. But over all this thing totally rocks.

I have already forwarded this to 5 'music lovin' friends and they are literally dancing in the isles! My wife is listening to it right now as I type this and is LOVING it.

You have to check it out! I have 20 more invites so shoot me an email if you want one.

Excellent List of Essential Free Windows Software

If you are a Windows user, you will definitely want to book mark this site: http://nedwolf.com/
All of this software is completely and totally free. No shareware, no nagware, no adware.
Reviewed constantly, categorized conveniently, with always-current links and versions.

I've downloaded quite a few utilities off of this site and added them to my USB Thumb drive just in case I need to install virus scan, antispyware, or personal firewalls. All free!

New Era of Participatory Public Relations

Steve Rubel posted his
10 Commandments for The Era of Participatory Public Relations. The take away message the PR folks: Embrace the new era of the empowered consumer

The Changing Face Of Influencer Relations

I was reading the article: Jeff Jarvis vs. Dell: Blogger's Complaint Becomes Viral Nightmare

In it, they interview Steve Rubel who states:

"Every company is going to have evangelists and vigilantes in the blogosphere, and they need a group of people focused on influencer relations, who are kind of watching all these different conversations and figuring out how to amplify the evangelists and how to calm the vigilantes."

Influencer Relations - Interesting term, isn't this what Public Relations firms do? Well, yes, but in the world of RSS and Blogging, the definitions of "Influencers" is changing. Influencers used to be primarily the media and industry analysts, but the list of influencers has expanded. Today, the purchasing process is influenced by a broad array of friends, colleagues and peers, pundits, academics, authors, researchers, and many others.

In an Article by David Kirkpatrick at Fortune Magazine he talked about how Google and Apple don't understand the importance of the new influencers. How will this affect them in the long run? He contrasts this to Microsoft's comparative openness with employee bloggers.

Free Wi-Fi? Get Ready for GoogleNet

According to Business 2.0 Google may be up to something.

"What if Google (GOOG) wanted to give Wi-Fi access to everyone in America? And what if it had technology capable of targeting advertising to a user's precise
location? The gatekeeper of the world's informationon could become one of the globe's biggest Internet providers and one of its most powerful ad sellers, basically supplanting telecoms in one fell swoop. "

This really makes a lot of sense! Read the rest here.

Want a $50 iBook? - Better Bring Your Brass Knuckles!

Yikes! It's an iStampede :-/

Richmond VA -- A near riot broke out when a crowd of 5,500 to 11,000 people rushed through a gate to buy used iBooks being sold by the school district for $50. Only 1,000 iBook were being sold, and people were in a rush to get to the sales counter first.
See a second-by-second slide-show here.

How To Protect Your Computer

Invariably, the most common question I get goes something like this:

"Jack, I just got a new laptop, and I've been hearing all kinds of things about virus' and spyware. What do you recommend to protect my PC from being infected?"

Well, here is the answer:

1. You need to install an Antivirus program. I recommend AVG Antivirus from GRISoft. It's quick, its small, it updates itself automatically and best of all its FREE! Download it here.

2. You need to install a personal firewall. There are a number of them out there, but the one I recommend is ZoneAlarm from ZoneLabs. It monitors and blocks malicious traffic both trying to get into your computer as well as programs trying to connect to the internet without your consent or knowledge. Download it here.

3. You need to install a Antispyware program. I used to recommend installing AdAware and Spybot to work in combination with each other. (This is still the best free antispyware for windows 98). But lately I have been recommending either installing Sunbelt Software's CounterSpy ($19.95) OR installing Microsoft's AntiSpyware Beta for FREE.

4. You need to regularly install the latest Windows Updates. I recommend setting XP to automatically download the updates for you. You can get the instructions on how to do that here.

U.S. brands have an image problem

CNN reports American icons such as Coke, McDonald's and Disney are losing luster with global consumers. Only 4 brands out of 16 increased their score.

FedEx Miss The Mark

Wired News reports that Blogger Jose Avila is being sued by FedEx to take down his website where he shows how he made all the furniture for his apartment out of FedEx shipping material.

Bad move FedEx! This guy is your biggest fan, you should hire him for a FedEx Ad. Or how about a gift certificate to IKEA instead of slapping him with a lawsuit?!?! Come on!

15 Chapters of Naked Coversations

I will be buying a copy of Shel's book when it comes out, but in the mean time, here are the links to his the drafts on his website:

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15

Re:think the Agency

Joe Jaffe has posted chapter 10 of his book. He has some great insights on the state of the agency today. Worth a read...

Future of Advertising - here today

Inc.com has an interesting article on new advertising techniques. I thought the Elevator TV screens for advertising is a GREAT idea! People would LOVE something to focus on while in the elevator.

Another interesting part was the list of new media providers:

Name	Location	Specialty
Claria	Redwood City, Calif.	Behavioral targeting service tracks the online habits of Web surfers and hits them with relevant advertising.
Enpocket	Boston	Sends ad messages, coupons, and branded video files to mobile phones -- in some cases tracking the phone's location.
Pulse	San Francisco	Online tools turn a photo of any person or animal into a lip-synched talking head for viral ad campaigns.
Zebra Imaging	Austin	Produces large promotional holograms that make images of objects or people stand out in 3-D -- no glasses needed.
Experian	Costa Mesa, Calif.	Collates consumer data to predict which people are likely to be in the market for particular products.
Reactrix	Redwood City, Calif.	A motion-sensitive projector turns any surface into a crowd-drawing, brandable interactive display.
Massive	New York City	Inserts ads via an online connection into video games while they're being played. Coming is technology that will adapt the ads to individual players.

Straight Forward Blogging Policy

Many of our clients are either starting a blog or thinking about it. Generally, its a good idea to write up your company's stance on blogging with a clear understanding of the boundaries. Buzz Marketing With Blogs posted the Hill & Knowlton blog policy which is easy to understand and seems to cover all the bases:

• I will acknowledge and correct mistakes promptly
• I will preserve the original post, using notations to show where I have made changes
• I will never delete a post
• I will not delete comments unless they are spam or off-topic
• I will disclose conflicts of interest (including client relationships) where I am able to do so
• I will not publish anything that breaches my existing employment contract
• I will distinguish between factual information/commentary and advertising
• I will never publish information I know to be inaccurate
• I will disagree with other opinions respectfully
• I will link to online references and original source materials directly
• I will strive for high quality with every post - including basic spell checking
• I will write deliberately and with accuracy
• I will reply to emails and comments when appropriate, and do so promptly
• I will restrict my posting to professional topics
• I will write on a regular basis, at least once each week

Automated Pinging Service

OK, so you write all these cool blog posts, but how do you promote them? Well one way is to use a pinging service.

There are many weblog sites which keep track of updates for thousands or hundred thousands of weblogs. To announce your weblog updates to these sites you have to ping them. This technique is described here.

Simply put, a ping is only saying to weblog sites: "hey, I have something new for you". After such a ping weblog sites will visit your website and index new content. So, pinging or registering your weblog in as many sites as possible is a very good solution to get more visitors.

I've been using www.pingomatic.com to ping the major weblog index sites such as Technorati and Feedster Well, I found another ping service called Pings.ws that will allow you to add code to your blog template so that it will ping the service automatically.

I'm not sure how to test if it works or now, nor am I sure how they prevent multiple pings in a row, but I am testing it out on my blog and I'll keep an eye to see who comes to visit.

Has anyone else found an easy way to automate blog pings? Let me know.

The latest figures from Nielsen/Net Ratings for the top online news sites

I was just talking to my wife about how I NEVER read a news paper anymore. And it looks like I'm not alone:

• Yahoo! News (24.9 million visitors in June 2005)
• MSNBC (23.8 mln)
• CNN (21.4 mln)
• AOL News (17.4 mln)
• Gannett Newspapers (11.4 mln)
• New York Times (11.2 mln)
• Internet Broadcasting (10.9 mln)
• Knight Ridder Digital (9.9 mln)
• Tribune Newspapers (9.0 mln)
• USA Today (8.6 mln)
• Washington Post (8.5 mln)
• ABC News (7.7 mln)
• Google News (7.2 mln)
• Hearst Newspapers Digital (6.9 mln)

Google News adds RSS feeds

This is very cool! Now this means you can subscribe to your google news search terms and read them in your news reader. You can read more here.

Here are is a few of our client feeds you can add to your news reader:

Bruegger's: http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=bruegger%27s&ie=UTF-8&output=rss

New Alliance Bank:
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&ie=UTF-8&q=%22New+Alliance+Bank%22&output=rss

Connecticut Sun:
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&ie=UTF-8&q=%22Connecticut+Sun%22&output=rss

Bigelow Tea
http://news.google.com/news?q=%22bigelow+tea%22&hl=en&lr=&tab=wn&ie=UTF-8&output=rss

Free Video Hosting
Check out this site called YouTube . YouTube is 'flickr for videos'. You can upload videos in a number of different formats ( .AVI, .MOV, and .MPG ). Videos can be of any length, but must be less than 100 mb in total size.

The service is completely free to users (publishers and viewers). YouTube converts video to a flash format, and therefore upload and playback is extremely fast.

This could be a quick and easy way to publish and share the Mason PR video library. They include code to include the videos on your own website as well.

Here's an example of a video interview with well-known blogger Halley Suit on how to get noticed in the blogosphere. Video interview conducted by JD Lasica at the BlogHer conference in Santa Clara, Calif., on July 30, 2005.

Adverblog Reports "Search engine advertising will generate more revenue than standard display advertising by 2010"

More good stats to keep in mind as we move forward in the online world!

Jupiter Research forecasts that online advertising will continue to growth in the next five years, reaching $18.9 billion in 2010, compared to $9.3 billion at the end of 2004. Search engine advertising will generate more revenue than standard display advertising by 2010. Rich media spending will grow at a 25% compound annual growth rate (to $3.5 billion) and streaming media will grow at a 30% compound annual growth rate (to $943 million) by 2010.

Fortune Magazine interview with Chrysler Director of Marketing

Interesting snipet from Fortune Magazine:

Julie Roehm has more than $2 billion to spend this year...

...Chrysler's director of marketing communications, Roehm, 34, oversees a budget that Advertising Age ranks as the sixth-largest pool of ad dollars in the nation.

...Roehm rarely misses a chance to talk about how delighted she is with online advertising. Last year she spent 10% of the budget online; this year she is allotting closer to 18%; next year, she says, she will allocate more than 20%. Do the math: In 2006 roughly $400 million of Chrysler's money that used to go into TV, newspaper, and magazine ads will be spent on the Internet. Says Roehm: "I hate to sound like such a marketing geek, but we like to fish where the fish are."

17 Mistakes Professionals Make with Their Blogs

How To Build A Better Blog Posted the following suggestions:

1. Not posting frequently enough. (Recommended: 2-3 times a week.)

2. Content is not focused, and the target audience is not clearly defined.

3. Posting articles that are too long, instead of using extended post features.

4. Not linking profusely (because the professional isn’t researching their field on the internet).

5. Poor spelling, bad grammar and typos.

6. No name of author in tag line or on side bar.

7. No author photo.

8. No signature or name in the footer; no way to tell who wrote post on a multi-author site.

9. No subscription form; no way to get blog updates through RSS or email.

10. No way for readers to leave comments and use trackbacks.

11. Too many categories or none at all.

12. No information about their business services and products.

13. Calendars for no reason at all (what is the point of those calendars anyway?).

14. Blog isn’t submitted to blog directories.

15. Not pinging each time a new post is published.

16. Not using trackbacks referring or linking to other blogs.

17. No blogroll or list of favorite blogs or websites.

I Read A Cool Acronym for BLOG

I was reading a posting on Pheedo that talked about the standard reasons for your company to blog. I liked the acronym they use for the fact that blogging is GREAT for search engine Ranking.
They said blog stands for Better Listing On Google. :-)

The frequency of updates, trackbacks, pings, comments, blogrolls and RSS all add to the search engine juice. Additionally, RSS alone is great for link building. Paul Chaney explains how to deploy a Blog to compliment your search strategy. Stephan Spencer goes into greater detail how you can use RSS to improve your organic search results.

Take-away is blogs help with organic search. To achieve higher results with search engines, incorporate keywords/phrases in your posts on a frequent basis.

Free Stats Counter - Looks Pretty Cool!I've been using Hitslink.com for stats tracking and it's got a pretty slick interface and very cool reporting features, but I just noticed that Russell Beattie is using a free stats counter from statcounter.com. Looks cool! I installed it so I'll let you know how it works alongside hitslink.

Ani Won't be touring much anymore :(

As I mentioned previously, I went on our annual trek to the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival at the end of July. Of the 4 days I really only got to hear one complete set (having 3 kids under 5 will tend to make that happen). But I did everything I could to make sure I could see Ani DiFranco's set. I even took my younger two for a drive at mid-day to get them to nap. I ended up Driving back and forth from Great Barrington Massachusetts to Hudson New York just to get them to sleep!
It was well worth it. Well anyway, this posting in kuro5hin just caught my eye:

Sadly, Ani will not be touring much in the near future.
Age is finally catching up with the diminutive troubadour, leaving her with tendonitis, and other repetitive stress injuries. As the show progressed, the degree of the injury became clear, with Ani shaking her arm often to relieve cramping. At one point, this was so noticeable the crowd hushed (maybe expecting an end to the concert) a lone voice called out "we'll miss you". Down front, we could see the tear in the eye, as she began the next song, warrior-like, dropping to her knees in front of the adoring audience.

I'm even more appreciative that I got to see her maybe for the last time live! Thanks for such a great show Ani!

Medicare To Offer Free Electronic Health Records System to All Doctors

Frank Hayes reports that Medicare will be giving away an open source version of Vista that has been paired down and simplified for small doctors offices.

Perhaps our client Hartford Medical Group would find this of interest.

Textbook example of the "Complete Brand Experience"

Norm told me he was going down to the city last weekend to show some visiting friends all the sites NYC had to offer. When I asked him where they were going, I found it interesting that he was excited to visit the Apple store in Soho. When I asked why, he explained that "it just gave him a good feeling to be there" (The same thing my wife tells me when she goes to Starbucks)

Apple has done an amazing job of becoming a lifestyle. We all think of the same things when thinking of the Apple brand, stylish, easy to use and innovative. I asked Norm to take some pictures and write down how the Apple Store fulfills the brand promise of Think Different. So he did. :-)

Norm Writes:
When Apple created the store in SoHo they did a spectacular job. The
outside of the building (except for the window advertisements) has been
unchanged except for the addition of what I would consider a beacon of hope, an Apple logo cut out of black metal hanging above massive glass doors. You walk through the front doors and you are greeted by a soaring ceiling that holds all the electronic toys you could possibly imagine. There are stations to play with the latest and greatest Apple products. There is an area for education (the second floor theatre where they offer free wifi and demo software products all day). They offer software and peripherals and even their infamous Genius Bar where you can get those difficult questions answered. It is not just the beauty of the store that makes it the greatest place in the world for me though. The people make it an even better experience. Apple has staffed out the store to the gills, there are always people on hand in every department to answer all of your questions or direct you to someone who does know (although I have found that most of the people know the answers to questions you didn't even realize you wanted to ask). These are just the people on staff though, the patrons are about as ecletic as they come even for SoHo, there are computer geeks; jocks; the elderly; young students; professionals and tourists. Everyone has been drawn in either by the brand (in which case they already knew it was going to be an experience to remember) or by the wonderful exterior.

Norm posted 20 pics, check em out here.

64% would advertise in blogs, 57% would place RSS ads

Norm Morneau just forwarded me this stat from a report that Forrester released in June. Good stuff. These are the kind of numbers our clients should be aware of:

Forrester says total US online advertising and marketing spending will reach $14.7 bln in 2005, a 23% increase over 2004. Online marketing and advertising will represent 8% of total advertising spending in 2010. Search engine marketing will grow by 33% in 2005, reaching $11.6 bln by 2010. Display advertising, which includes traditional banners and sponsorships, [...]

I Love Al Jaffee's Cartoons.

For those of you who know me, you know I am a HUGE Mad Magazine fan. And of all the amazing artists, Al Jaffee was my all time favorite. I loved the fold in and his inventions were the BEST.

I just had to post this because it is so funny!

Here is his cartoon from 1975:




Here is the recent winning invention at this year's student of the year contest at London's Central Saint Martins College:



Dog Poo Spray freezes your dog's poop to a stick so that you don't need to scoop it up with a baggie and feel it squish revoltingly between your fingers.

Mr. Jaffee was 30 years ahead of his time!

Yahoo! Launches its Adsense Killer: the Yahoo! Publisher Network

As of today there is now an alternative to AdSense.

The new Yahoo! Publisher Network platform is now in beta and it enables you to:

* Generate additional revenue from your site. Display ads related to the content on your site. You'll earn revenue from qualified clicks.

* Take advantage of Yahoo! Publisher tools, services and programs. Integrate other Yahoo! services into your web site, including Add to My Yahoo! (RSS), Y!Q and much more to come

* Help shape what Yahoo! offers the publishing community. This beta program is just the beginning. Our mission is to deliver products and services based on the needs of the publishing community.

The increasing influence of the blogosphere intrigues me

I am still trying to catch up on the latest buzz since returning from Vacation in the Berkshires last week. I was staying in a hotel with a phone system that didn't allow me to connect to the internet with my laptop and my cell phone only worked on a 1/2 mile stretch of road between Hillsdale and New Lebanon, NY. Off the grid! Anyway....

The latest discussion that has caught my eye is the buzz on the downward spiral of Dell product quality and customer support. This immediately caught my attention since we too have historically had problems with Dell laptops and I vowed never buy a Dell system for my company again.

A number of influential bloggers have gone on record as saying they too will never buy a Dell again including Jeff Jarvis, BL Ochman and Shel Israel . Why does this matter? Because many people read these blogs and a good number of them have blogs of their own. This is the new electronic buzz/word of mouth. And the buzz for Dell ain't good!

What's Dell's response to all of this? Well.... not a thing. Their official policy is to not respond publicly. Dell -- burying your head in the sand isn't going to fix the problem! The Mason PR team would NEVER recommend to 'look but don't touch'!

As an interesting aside, Matt Galloway attempts to use blogpulse to track if there is any up-swing in negative comments for Dell. His technique should be added to any crisis managment as another way to track buzz in the blogosphere.

#2 in Yahoo for Quick Boys Moving

Got some response to the Quick Boys story. Shel Israel sent me a nice email this morning thanking me for letting him know about this story. He said it was too late for him to add this example to his book, but that he would continue to follow the story as it unfolds.

Also, I started noticing some traffic from yahoo today. It turns out I am #2 in Yahoo for the term Quick Boys Moving! Very interesting.

Big Brands Moving Dollars into Online Advertising

The New York Times reports that I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!, a Unilever brand that has long used traditional advertising, primarily television commercials, to reach its target market of women ages 35 and up. For the spray-bottle version of the spread, the American unit of Unilever is introducing this week a humorous campaign devoid of TV spots.

"Classical advertising is not as effective and efficient as it has been in the past," said Javier Martin, who manages the brand at Unilever United States in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., "so we're looking for more innovative ways to reach our consumers."

The fact that "more and more women are using the Internet" helped persuade the company that Webisodes would be preferable to commercials, Mr. Martin said, as well as the idea that the ads needed to be "engaging and entertaining and interesting enough to be forwarded to friends and family."

Using word-of-mouth marketing for the spray also made sense, he added, because consumers questioned in research sessions say they hear about the spray that way more often than they do other brand varieties like sticks and tubs.

Don't Mess with a Blogger
Information moving at the speed of blog...

I just finished reading chapter 13 of Naked Conversations posted on Shel Israel's blog talking about blogging in a crisis. I then stumbled onto this post on boing-boing about a moving company in Toronto called Quick Boys Movers trying to bully a blogger to remove a comment posted about their moving service.

I just did a search on "Quick Boys Moving" in google and the blog comment is listed #1 AND #2

As Shel puts it:

[B]logs play a fundamental role in the sharing and spreading of information and
they do it with unprecedented speed. Businesses can jump in fast and effectively
control, reduce or eliminate damage.

OR in the case of Quick Boys Movers, they can shoot themselves in the foot.

Make Your Own Google Logo :)

Online AdSpend Rose 11% in Q2, to Rise Another 10% in Q3 Says Deutsche Bank Survey

According to an article in MarketerToday:

In a survey of 116 media executives Deutsche Bank determined that Q2 saw an 11% increase in online adspend, due to an influx of online marketers and a "scarcity of premium content" according to a MediaPost article.

More findings, in a convenient list format:

70%: Marketers who expect online ad spending to increase in Q3
66%: Respondents whose clients' spending increased since Q1
48%: Marketers who increased their budgets
12%: Marketers who increased their budgets more than 30%
10%: Predicted increase of budgets for Q3
9%: Increase in prices for premium inventory

Contact Information
I was just reading Shel Israel's latest Post, and when I read tip #7 Be accessible, I realized that I had neglected to add my contact information to my blog. And sure enough I had a comment from Hjalmar Gislason over at www.spurl.net saying the same thing.

Well, problem solved, I have posted both my email address and cell phone (to the right)

Thanks to both Shel and Hjalmar for pointing this out.

Competition Slashing Costs of Broadband

AP reports that the broadband battle is heating up with costs being cut back to between $15 and $20 a month. I FINALLY switched and I LOVE it! Nothing like sitting on the couch and posting to my blog through my wireless network. ahhhh, gotta love it.

Speedline Knowledge Blog Launched

Highly regarded industry experts Gerald Pham-Van-Diep and Joe Belmonte will be writing on various topics related to the electronics industry. According to Rick Short's recent post, Speedline is the third industry blog launched behind Indium and Intertronics.

Excellent work guys!

Two thirds of blog readers don't know what a blog is.
A recent study from BuzzMetrics/Mouthpiece reviled that a majority of blog readers don't know their reading a blog.

David Galbraith has a post on why this is a good thing. He Writes:

This is great news, it spells ubiquity. Memes need a buzzword to catch on, but by now blogs are more than online diaries.

The weblog publishing model, with built in syndication, tracking, real-time search, permanent, item based archiving and linking and easy to use publishing tools is the way everything will eventually be published on the web.

August 6th is the 10th anniversary of the Netscape IPO
I heard the interview with Adam Lashinsky on Marketplace last Tuesday and just stumbled upon this Fortune.com history.

Boy, before Mosaic and Netscape, we had to use text browsers such as lynx (http://home.pacific.net.sg/~kennethkwok/lynx/scrshot.gif) and gopher (http://www.wbglinks.net/pages/history/stuffwbgl/misc/gopher.jpg)

It really is amazing how far we have come in 10 years!

Blog software comparison chart
Excellent comparison of 8 of the top blogging software packages.
Blog software comparison chart

I would add this to spurl, but the site seems to be down :(...

Really Cool Way to organize Social Bookmarks

I was checking out Jeremy Zawodny's Post on a new application to organize del.icio.us bookmarks
del.icio.us direc.tor: Delivering A High-Performance AJAX Web Service Broker :: Johnvey
I've been trying to spurl everything that is interesting and it automatically passes it over to my del.icio.us account.

Very cool, all different kinds of ways to view, sort and search my web links.

Found a Free Offline reader to Synch with Bloglines.com
I just installed GreatNews. It seems cool and its free.
Bloglines is my main RSS reader, but I was looking for something to download my feeds when I don't have internet connectivity such as on the train down to NYC. Looks like this will work quite nicely.

This is the first time I have ever seen Google crash!
I must use Google 100 times a day (no exaggeration) and this is the very first time I have EVER seen a server error. I just had to take a picture ;-)

Hand-held Brainstorming Tools
I have never seen these brainstorming tools before.
The reviewers on Amazon LOVE these things!
I'll have to run this by our creative director!

PRSA - Presentation on Using RSS in Corporate Communications

I just sat in on a presentation given by Elizabeth Albrycht with APM Communications on RSS for the B2B market. She validated some of our strategies including RSS in online press rooms, and capturing and tracking word of mouth and online buzz. Some other interesting ideas she had for RSS were:

• Extranets and partner areas
• Customer relations
• Resource center and online libraries
• Event related information

It's great to see all these new ideas for RSS. I will continue to monitor and post other ways to use RSS and XML as a connections tool. If you find anything else let me know!

Hey PR guess what? -- Journalists adore blogs.

MarketingSherpa just published survey results that over 50% of technology journalists surveyed read blogs on a regular basis and surf them for new story ideas. My guess is that others will soon follow.

REI to use Blog software to post content to their website

Interesting story posted on Internet Retailer on how REI is doing a limited rollout of blogging software to post content on the REI website.

Blogging software developed by Seattle e-mail technology
developer What Counts will, in effect, make bloggers out of store personnel who
use the tool to post local events and schedules. While that content will reflect
the personality of REI as a company to the extent that it supports company
values and mission, it's not, at this point, intended as an extended platform
for the personal attitudes of the individual blogger.

"We're using blogging technology, but it really will not be
presented as a blog," says Reynolds. We are not educating the 50 or so users
that they are going to be blogging. We're simply creating a new user interface
that makes it incredibly simple to post content."

This was a topic of discussion in my last 4As IT committee meeting and I poo-poo-ed the idea! Even the Mason Technologist gets it wrong some times ;-). Well, obviously blogging software will never replace robust content management systems, but its an interesting idea.

Actually I suggested doing a similar thing on the bruegger's news page. We have added an RSS 2.0 feed, but why not make the news page a "blog" to post not only press releases, but video and audio news as well as other news items that don't necessarily warrant a full press release. I'll let you know when it goes live.

Podcast Vs. Blogcast
The debate rages on, right now Podcast is winning by a landslide, but blogcast is on the rise... See for yourself -->
Track it with CustomScoop
Track it with Blogpulse

This is a great example of how to use these tools to track word of mouth

PR People should read Tim Bray's article on the new PR. With blogs, the word of mouth network is getting more and more efficient. The smart PR firms know this and use it to their advantage.