Conversationblog

It was totally impossible to miss the iPhone hype here in Belgium over the last few days and it made me think... are Blackline updates available on mobile phones, more specifically the iPhone ?

My previous blog has been "mobilized" since a couple of years now thanks to a great little service called Winksite but Blacklineblog.com was only recently added to the list.

Today I tried out a new service called Mofuse and created an iPhone friendly version of our blog.

Here's what it look like. If you want to experience an interactive view then check out the mobile URL.

The service let's you add other RSS feeds and content than just your blogsite and can be customized in different ways. Overall it is easy to use and to set up so I can't see a reason why bloggers and corporate publishers wouldn't do this.

Again, the principle of "create once, publish multiple times and on multiple formats" is valid here. It is all about making your content travel.

As for the iPhone itself... No I don't have one and don't plan to purchase one although I am very happy with my transfer to the Mac world..

I'll check some reviews about the new Nokia N96 and then probably buy one because at the end of the day, I am a blogger, not a fashionista... ;-)

Recently I have been talking about the concept of "platform independent publishing" to clients, explaining them that the content they create should be able to "travel" as much as possible across the web, independently of format and platform.

In short this means that when I publish this blogpost (or press release, or by-lined article or....) the content should be able to be consumed not just in text format and not only by visiting this blog.

Really Simple Syndication, or in short RSS, makes this possible.

For example: this blogpost is published here on this blog but at the same time is also;

• re-published on Conversationblog.com
• mailed in email format
• in audio (MP3) format
• microblogged on Twitter,
• on Facebook
• on Tumblr
• and can be read on a mobile phone.

The best thing of all is that this happens all at once and automatically. I just push the "publish button" here on my blogging platform.

This is an important concept for us PR professionals as more and more readers are consuming news and information independently of the platform where it is published on.

Mobile phones and other devices are becoming slowly but securely the portable information devices they have been heralded to be. Soon we'll consume web based content on our TVs just as we already take our radio programs with us on our MP3 player.

Is your press site, corporate website, intranet... ready to apply the concept of platform independent publishing ?

More importantly, are you ready to think and work in these "new" environments ?

Let me know !

Nice online tool to create timelines. You can feed any RSS feed in there as well as connect with Twitter, Facebook and other versions of your online presence.

Time to look at my own little "neck of the woods" here in Belgium and see how my Belgian PR colleagues are using (or not using) tools such as blogging, podcasting, RSS feeds etc... in the context of business communications.

Two little surveys are helping me to fine-tune my own personal impressions:

First there's the results of the social media survey of Leads United - Blackline's sister agency - which were published this afternoon.

My colleagues at Leads United collected feedback from 70 PR professionals working in companies across all industries located in Belgium.

Here are the major results:

• Only 24% of respondents use RSS feeds.
• Only 1.4% are active wiki users.
• The implementation of blogging guidelines has risen from 4% in 2007 to 20% in 2008.
• When speaking about strategically applying social media tools, it is seen in this order; first external communications, second internal communications and third, crisis communications.

You can find more details in their social media press release here.

And then there's my own, personal, non-scientific, listing of PR agencies located in Belgium, who are using (or not) RSS feeds to distribute their own (or their client's) content.

As with recent years the trends are not improving that much....

Here are my findings:

• From the 27 PR agencies surveyed, only 9 are using RSS feeds on their website.
• 1 PR agency decided to finally start with RSS feeds on their website in 2008.
  
• 4 didn't optimize their feeds to be recognized by a browser.
• 1 PR agency website was not available.
• 1 PR agency website had RSS feeds in 2007, but not anymore in 2008.

As I wrote on numerous occasions before, RSS feeds and their use is a basic & fundamental skill for someone, or an agency who claims to have experience in "social media" or "online PR".... I can't understand that some PR agencies claim they have those skills and then not implement RSS feeds for their own use on their own website....

You can find the full list and results on my public wiki. Comments about the list and the results ? Please let me know..

Also, for those of you who have heard about RSS and are willing to spend a couple of hours this summer to learn about it, go here and check out my 2 new Summer Courses .

Everyone is welcome !

Yesterday morning I spoke at the Intranet 2.0 Forum which Melcrum organized in London. The conference focused on internal communications, the use of intranets and possible applications of "social media" like wikis, blogs, RSS feeds etc...

I was the second speaker and came right after Jane McConnell who is the founder of Netstrategy/JMC, a consulting company specializing in all things related to intranets.

Jane & I met years ago at another conference when I was still "evangelizing" for IBM. I must say I had (and still have) the impression that things are not really moving forward in the context of serious business applications of social media and mentioned this to Jane. She went straight onto a full rebuttal of my "feeling" with a great presentation based on her yearly research among companies across the globe.

Some highlights of her Annual Global Intranet Strategies Survey:

• 72% of respondents are implementing or playing with social media internally.
• The "intranet" will be the "way of working" in about 12 months for over 50% of the organizations questioned.
• 38 respondents on 51 see "the organizational culture is not ready" as a barrier for the implementation of social media within the company.
• 46 respondents of 62 stated that getting expert views on a subject is the top application of internal blogging.
• 50 of the 62 state that wikis are used primarily for experience & knowledge sharing.

My take on these very interesting insights is that - yes, intranets & social media are on the agenda of communicators but no, they are not in synch with communications & business objectives.

From the roughly half of the people in the room who showed hands when Jane asked if they had wikis in the enterprise, only a couple showed hands when I asked them if the wikis they had where implemented in the context of a clear objective instead of a test run somewhere on a server as it regularly happens...

Whatever the future might bring, I need to compare field notes with Jane more often. For those of you who want to participate in the 2008 survey, please get in touch with Jane, she'll appreciate your input.

I'll write more about this conference in the next coming days.... Keep tuned.

Here is a nice application of social networks: putting pressure on a company and making a clear - and not anonymous - statement that the current CEO is not the top favorite for the job.

Belgacom is one of the major telecom operators in Belgium and is owned for 51% by the Belgian government (read: the taxpayer). This Facebook group is asking members to give their preference as to a new CEO for the group.

Today - after several days of activity and about 200 members - they list a top 10 list of possible applicants for the job of next CEO. No vote whatsoever for Didier Bellens, the current CEO of the company.

Not sure how - and if - this will influence any decision making in this matter (probably not at all) but I like the idea of giving a voice to the people - like me - who actually support this company through taxes.

Interesting note: the company has several official and non official Facebook Groups but this current "vote group" - which grows at about 25 members a day - has the most members....

Via IT Professional. Other blog coverage (in French) here and here.

Last week I received a confirmation on something I feared all along; the next generation of PR practitioners, currently in their last year PR or Communications studies, are probably not ready to apply social media tools in the context of business communications.

Why do I think this ?

For several reasons:

1. Although most students use some of the tools on a regular basis (Facebook, MySpace, blogs...) it is more often in a "play" context than a "work context".
2. Several teachers told me that they simply do not have the time to cover online communications or online PR in their courses.
3. Others said they can not incorporate "social media" in their curriculum simply because it is not on the official program.
4. Several Professors told me that they have no experience with these new tools themselves, so how could they teach the topic ?
5. At some universities and PR schools, incorporating social media in the day to day teaching environment is an IT nightmare.

Now, this is not based on any scientific research, but it is the general feeling I have from talking to both students and teacher from European as well as American universities.

We would think that the "generation born on the web" would grasp the power of social media in the context of business communications much faster that most of us "traditional PROs" but this is simply not the case.

As long as social media like wikis and blogs are not used on a regular basis in the context of studying PR or business communications it will be impossible for us business communicators to hire new people with experience. It is not simply a matter of hiring a young PR graduate to "get the skills" needed...

Applying social media in the context of online business communications is different and both academics and the PR industry need to work together to ensure that we can hire the people we'll need in the future.

What do you think ? Let me know. Your input is more than welcome.

Yesterday I arrived in Iceland for the summit of the International Association of Online Communicators.

For the next 2 days we'll be discussing several topics and papers on online communications with people from different countries and backgrounds. You can see the full program here.

If you wish to follow the conference you can do so on the IAOC blog - I just installed the CoveritLive code and you'll be able to interact with us while the conference is live.

It is great to meet up again with my colleagues from the IAOC again and I am sure we'll discuss the set up of the European chapter is the next 2 days.

I am not the only Belgian here; Luc Van Braekel, our most influential Flemish blogger, is also here and it is nice to finally meet him face to face.

Reykjavik is a great city; small, calm, nice people, by the sea and with amazing views on the Icelandic countryside.

I think I'll come back one day and visit the interior. Luc (who has been here since last week end) tells me that the country has a lot to offer to people who love nature.

I will be posting picture on a regular basis on Flickr as well. Enjoy the conference and please do interact through the CoveritLive interface if you see a chance.

Here's some good news for you: if you would like to attend the next Melcrum conference on the future of the Intranet then I have a 25% discount for you !

On June 25 & 26 I'll be talking at the Intranet 2.0 Forum in London. The conference covers the future of the intranet and internal communications in a social media age.

Despite substantial investment in intranets over the past decade, for most companies they’re still not delivering a return on investment in terms of use and increased efficiency in the way employees access useful and important information.

Now, the arrival of social media tools has presented a fantastic new opportunity to rejuvenate intranets, drag them into the 21st Century and place them right at the centre of companies’ efforts to improve conversation, collaboration and a sense of community across the organization.

The Intranet 2.0 Forum has been designed to share the latest thinking, developments and practices relating to intranets, content management and web 2.0 tools and technologies.

You can find the full online agenda here. If you're planning to attend and would like to use the 25% discount offered to my readers, please do the following:

Call Melcrum on +44 (0)208 600 4670 or e-mail events@melcrum.com and you will get the 25% discount by mentioning that you are readers of Blacklineblog.

(In fact you are readers of the Blacklineblog - which is my second blog - and the place were my articles are originally written.)

If you will be there, please let me know so we can hook up.