Conversationblog

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 !

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.

Interesting report here from Reuters how Twitter was used to break a story hours before the mainstream media got hold of it.

Dave Winer, a well known blogger, asked his Twitter ecosystem (people who subscribe to his updates) if they knew something about a possible explosion in Falls Church, Virginia. Soon other people on Twitter told what they had seen or felt in and around that area.

It was 90 minutes later when official media reported what actually happened - thereby confirming what several people reported already through Twitter.

Of course it helped that Dave has such a huge following on Twitter (more than 9000 people) but this is again a case of social media being faster than traditional media.

I have used microblogging for conferences and regular updates myself and while at first I didn't really see a use for Twitter or Jaiku I now see more and more practical business cases popping up.

Here's a good overview on how journalists can and are using microblogging tools. For corporations I can think of applying the principles to internal communications, urgent situation updates, crisis communications and more.

What do you think ? Still the biggest waste of time ever...?

I am currently testing out Scribefire, an add on for the Firefox browser which allows you to write a blogpost while surfing and without leaving your browser window.

This blogpost has been written from "within" the browser and while I have several tabs (webpages) open. Am curious how it will look but the features of Scribefire look great.

For instance, I can insert a Youtube clip right from the interface.



Euroblog 2008 - Day One (13.03.2008)

Or a Flickr Image:




Attentio Graphic.

I'll test it further but it sure looks good.... Helps to be able to blog a story while surfing the web.

What are you using to blog ?
Technorati Tags: scribefire, blogpost, tool, youtube, flickr, blogging, Firefox, add on

Those of you who followed my training sessions on RSS learned already that your online content can travel in different formats via different media (mobile phone, email, SMS etc…).

Today I managed to create a web widget (small online sometimes viral application) and turn it into a real Facebook Application in just 20 minutes. All this based on… indeed, the RSS feed of Blackline.

You can find the widget here and the Facebook Application here.

By doing so I did 2 things:

1. I made my latest blog content portable so that anyone who wished to do so can take my little widget and republish my content on their own website. The content will be updated automatically by RSS, always showing my latest articles.

2. I adapted this little application to the Facebook platform (more than 64 million users) so that anyone who wishes to do so can add my content to their profile page.

Will people do this…? Well, in my case probably only my hardest fans (there are some 76 people who read my blog on their mobile phone, proving that I do have fans !) but imagine you’re working for a gaming company, a B2C retailer, a trend setter like Apple…

It is all about repackaging your content and make it available on as much platforms as possible…

And to close the loop - one of the best ways to do this online is via RSS feeds.

Some people are more "visual" than others - concept thinkers, instead of analytical thinkers - and the web has found a nice little solution for those among us who like images...

WebSlides let's you create a slideshow from any RSS feed and place this slideshow on your website/blog in the form of a widget....

Below the result for the RSS feed of Blacklineblog.com, my other blog.

The Institute for the Future of the Book has developed a new WordPress theme with a very nice twist: you can comment on each paragraph instead of commenting per blogpost...

"Annotate, gloss, workshop, debate: with CommentPress you can do all of these things on a finer-grained level, turning a document into a conversation."

A good example is the white paper of the New Media Consortium entitled Evolution of Communication.

I have commented on several paragraphs and it works just great. Checking other comments & commenters - paragraph by paragraph - really allows for more "finer-grain level" discussions.

Technorati : blog, collaboration, commentpress, futureofthebook, wordpress

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Again it is during a crisis that new technology is used at its best...

Like the use of blogs during the Tsunami disaster in Asia in 2004, today protesters in Myanmar/Burma are using mobile phones to get the story out and their supporters are using social networks like Facebook to gather support.

Look at these incredible numbers of this support group on Facebook;

• 29/09/2007 150,000 Members

• 28/09/2007 60,000 Members

• 27/09/2007 30,000 Members

• 26/09/2007 12,000 Members

• 25/09/2007 6000 Members

• 24/09/2007 3,500 Members

Not only support groups are using web based tools such as petitions, social network and blogs. Also the local protesters are blogging away to get the real story out as reported recently by the Middle East Times.

The government blocks almost every Web site that carries news or information about the Southeast Asian country, and even bars access to Web-based e-mail. But an army of young techies in Yangon works around the clock to circumvent the censors, posting pictures and videos on blogs almost as soon as the protests happen.

It are the local citizen reporters who are sending us the real pictures & stories of what is happening there while privately owned media in Myanmar are refusing to print pro-government propaganda in an act of protest.

Also a wiki has been started to collect all protest actions and a call to bloggers has been launched for October 4, 2007.

On that day, bloggers who condemn the actions of the Burmanese junta will post a protest banner and a single line of text: "Free Burma".

Other online ways to support this action is by Digging it, promoting it on your Facebook profile and Blurb it on Technorati.

And finally, there's a list of bloggers who just changed their blog template to red in protest.

But then again, technology is not always used for the best causes... Some people think it is the best time now to use the online support for Burma to spread malware.... Sad.

Update: how fast things go... I just updated my Facebook profile, indicating I was writing this blogpost and just seconds later, Des Walsh, editor of Thinking Home Business pointed me to his coverage of the Burma protests and media coverage...

Technorati : Burma, Myanmar, advocacy, digg, facebook, free burma, mobile phone, monks, protest, social media, videoblogging

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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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