Conversationblog

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 !

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 !

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.

According to a study by Awareness, a social media company in the US - about 54% of enterprise size companies are using so called Web2.0 technology. The adoption of blogs, wikis etc... even rises to 74% when looking at companies with less than 500 employees. The report is based on 112 completed surveys.

From all the Web2.0 technologies used, blogs rank first in adoption with 87% of the respondents saying they have used them in an enterprise context. Some other findings include that 96% of the respondents say that all of their Web2.0 initiatives have been successful and 91% claim that using social media for internal purposes has improved communications and collaboration.

The report goes on with interesting insights in the use of different kind of social media and the importance of security, deployment and so on. The major obstacles to the adoption of these tools are limited internal resources, internal budget and - last but not least - security considerations.

While the report gives a very good insight on what is happening in the enterprise world in the US, I would love to see the same kind of study done in Europe. Just over the last week I visited several companies, large and smaller ones and come to the conclusion that we all have a very long way to go.

At the same time, questions from clients are more precise, more elaborate than before showing that the interest in using social media for business communications and collaboration is clearly there.

How about you ? Do you think the time is right to start thinking about deploying social media, or is it too early for your organization ? Let me know.

With a new "war for talent" going on in the marketplace companies are looking for - what they call - "innovative" approaches to discover, attract and recruit employees. One of those tools is blogging.

It seems that "a blog to recruit" makes much more sense, or is easier understood by companies than he whole "social media for the enterprise" concept. I do understand why; recruitment is at the core of most organizations today, has a high priority and is very practical with a clear ROI.

Being a former headhunter (don't ask...), I can say that a blog is definitely a very good tool to complete the HR/hiring arsenal.

My first encounter with an Executive Recruiter who blogged was in France and Jacques Froissant from Altaïde is still posting at a very regular pace. Some topics he covers are:

• news from the industries he recruits for - demonstrating he understands the business environment of his clients.
• the latest positions he's looking to fill - obvious promotion.
• human resources news for Managers - showing he follows the latest trends that impact his potential applicants.

Even government organizations like our own VDAB (Flemish service for employment) are using blogposts as a recruitment tool by having job seekers and people who already have a job blog about their experiences.

The set up is very well done; bloggers are allowed to blog during one month and tell their story; how did they find that job, was it difficult, who helped them etc...

Except... the blogposts you can read on the VDAB Joblog are "reviewed" before they are posted. Although they are based on real blogposts by job seekers they have been re-written to a certain standard the VDAB editorial team handles...

Even if this is explained and made public (in Flemish) on their blog page, it still gives me a feeling of "corporate control". Why not publish the articles as such ? Are all job seekers bad writers..? Authenticity is better than mediocre writing no ?

What do you think ? Should blogposts always be posted as such (authentic) or can they be rewritten for the sake of editorial quality ? Fill in the poll and let us know.

According to the Center for Media & Democracy, "2007 was a year full of spin, manipulation and deception...".

Well now you can vote for the most unethical PR at the 4th Annual Falsies Awards.

"This year, we are asking you to help identify the worst spinners and propagandists of 2007. Please read through the list of nominees below and rank them. You can also nominate additional candidates in our readers' award section." (CMD website).

The list can be viewed here and you can of course cast your vote. Companies like Edelman, Merck, Hill & Knowlton but also US government officials and business leaders are among the nominees. The list contains mainly US stories but is worth reading....

I voted for WikiScanner which allowed the public to see who anonymously edited what in Wikipedia and as such gave a twist to the collective truth & at the same time violated Wikipedias policy. Winner(s) will be announced in December.

Does anyone know about such an imitative in Europe ?

Technorati : CMD, PR, center for media and democracy, ethics, falsies awards, public relations, spin

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A recent study by the European Interactive Advertising Association found that Europeans read more and more news online.

Some details:

• 65 per cent of European internet users access news sites at least once a month.
• 28 per cent of the respondents admitted to reading newspapers less frequently as a result of the availability of news online.
• 40 per cent said they watched less television.
• 22 per cent found they were listening to the radio less.

Combine this with the latest online shopping trends from The "Social Shopping Study 2007," commissioned by PowerReviews:

• 70% of all online shoppers said customer reviews and ratings on a retailer's website were extremely or very important when they are selecting and purchasing products - these shoppers are called "Social Researchers" in the report.
• 86% of Social Researchers find customer reviews extremely or very important, vs. 70% of all online shoppers.
• 64% of Social Researchers research products online more than half the time, no matter where they buy the product (store, web, catalog, etc.)
• 76% of Social Researchers (vs. 69% of all online shoppers) are more likely to shop on a retailer's website - vs. its competitor site - if it offers social navigation.

Two important trends that clearly support the case for understanding what social media and online trends could mean for your company and products. As I wrote before, at least start listening through the use of RSS feeds and active online participation.

Technorati : EIAA, europe, media, newspaper, online news, powerreviews, research, social researcher

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Technorati : Jack nicholson, a few good men, ad, advertising, tom cruise, youtube

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A bit of shameless self promotion this time.

If you are a Communications Manager, Public Relations Director, Internal Communications Manager or just interested to know how your company, your employees and your audiences will/are be influenced by social media like blogging, podcasting etc... then this hands on workshop could be something for you.

The School of Business, Media & Politics (SBMP), based in Brussels, asked me to give a seminar/workshop on "web 2.0" and I'll do so on October 25/26, 2007 and again next year on February 21/22, 2008.

More information on their website as well as the registration page.

This seminar will be targeted at communications, marketing and information management professionals and will require a basic understanding of the PC & the Internet.

What I mean is; you do not have to have a degree in computer sciences to participate...

Technorati : PR, SBMP, blogging, brussels, corporate communications, marketing, rss, seminar, web2.0, workshop
Del.icio.us : PR, SBMP, blogging, brussels, corporate communications, marketing, rss, seminar, web2.0, workshop

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A new report from Forrester gives some insights into the use of RSS in a marketing context and it's Johnson & Johnson versus the Red Cross in the blogosphere...

I was reading Adriana's blog today and saw her post about her client Johnson & Johnson who is suing.... the American Red Cross. No this is not a mistake, they are suing the American Red Cross because of an infringement on one of their trademarks.

As you can imagine this is no easy decision to make for an organization and it is definitely not an easy task for the PR/Corporate Comms. Manager to handle. But Ray Jordan & Marc Monseau from J&J Communications are doing a good job blogging about this issue in a very transparent way.

They must be fighting with legal over this but I do believe it helps give insight on the 2 sides of the story here. Will it keep J&J safe from a dent in their public image ? Not completely but it will balance the views somewhat, at least in the blogosphere.

I hope someone will condense this story into a study report for the next generation of PR professionals so they can read, study and learn how the profession is (slowly) changing and opening up to (don't be scared now) transparency.

Is RSS the best invention of the whole web2.0 phenomenon ?

That's what several online publications are asking in their articles based on the latest report from Forrester. According to this 2007 report about 40% of US based interactive marketeers are using RSS. More statistics give a general idea of the uptake of RSS although other stay skeptic.

I don't get it.... I have written before about the use of RSS and how it can be applied to marketing, business communications, news gathering and monitoring. Other people like Rok Hrastnik have been writing books about it with great case studies and clear ROI measurements. Why does something so straight forward seems to be looked at as the biggest mystery of all (online) times ?

This is not the first report by Forrester on the topic... Here's one dating back to 2005 I found on Charleen Li's blog. Already at the time there was a huge interest in RSS by Marketeers and the benefits were clearly stated.

Oh, and for the Belgian PR professionals reading this.... Yes, I will soon update my listing of Belgian based PR agencies who use/do not use RSS on their website/blog.

Technorati : J&J, adriana lucas, charlene li, forrester, pr agency, red cross, rok hrastnik, rss

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