(L to R: Josh Hallett, Mike Manuel, Dave Coustan)

I got some of the PR 2.0 gang back together while we were at Syndicate NYC last week. David Parmet, Mike Manuel, Josh Hallett and I were joined by Joel Richman of PAN Communications. We talked about the lack of PR folks at the Syndicate show, about the Chevy ‘roll your own ad’ campaign, Amanda Congdon, and much, much more. We can’t help ourselves. We like to chat.

Listen to the podcast:

• At the Weblogs Worknotes page
• Download the file (~26 MB .mp3)
• Subscribe to the feed

Technorati Tags: brian oberkirch, david parmet, hyku, joel+richman, josh hallett, mike+manuel, PAN+communications, pr2.0, syndicate, syndicate06, syndicatenyc, voce+communications, Weblogs+Work, Weblogs+Worknotes

Listen to the podcast: 

• At the Weblogs Worknotes page
• Download the file (~53MB .mp3)
• Subscribe to the feed

Technorati Tags: brian oberkirch, david parmet, josh hallett, mike+manuel, podcast, pr2.0, public+relations, Weblogs+Work, Weblogs+Worknotes

(Two sharp Mikes:  Manuel & Arrington) 

A great start last night for Third Thursday, the monthly meetup on social media jumpstarted by Mike Manuel, Phil Gomes, Jeremy Pepper & Giovanni Rodriguez.  Hated not to make it, but we can live vicariously through Pepper's write up, Valleywag's commentary, Mike A's blog, Mike M's blog, and this mp3.  Mike Arrington, of TechCrunch, talks about his goals for the growing network of sites he runs, and how he thinks the new PR should work.

We talked a bit about these same topics in our podcast on Weblogs Worknotes.  

Shocking turn of events.  Seems that Jeremy Pepper & Steve Rubel have thrown off the Man's yoke and started their own blockbuster PR firm, one grounded in the power of social media, I'm sure.  Super snooper Josh Hallett broke the story.  I, for one, welcome our new social media overlords.

Rock on, gentlemen.  

Bonus:  Parmet noticed a little change in attitude when we were all in Palo Alto a few weeks back.  Was a new love blooming even then?

Update:  Rubel is positively giddy over the new venture.  

Living on the Edge: Blogging in the Real World

Ok, we get it: blogs can be really good for business. Over the past 18 months, a lot of words have been laid down to get people to think about blogs as more than online journals, places for cat photos and outlets for political rants. Big companies like Sun, Microsoft, Boeing, GM and a number of others have embraced blogging as a critical way to have conversations with those who matter to their business. A new blog comes online every second, according to blog search service Technorati. Robert Scoble and Shel Israel have just published the definitive book on business blogging – Naked Conversations: How Blogs Are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers.

Blogs are here to stay. So, how do we actually do this stuff?

As my friend Mike Manuel noted at the New Communications Forum this past week, it’s time to move the discussion out of theories about blogging and social media and into the raucous to & fro that is actual conversation. Once you get the big idea (that as marketers our job is to enhance conversations, not try to control them), you need a new set of approaches for getting the job done. The bad news: there are no hard & fast rules. As customers produce their own messages (through blogs, videos, podcasts, photos) at the edges, our marketing has to be flexible, flowing, transparent. Honest. Here’s a handful of real world thoughts to get you started on your own adventure with blogs and other social media:

Get Small Fast.

Social media is an embarrassment of niches. Blogs make small players look bigger & help big players get small. If mass media wastes your message on those not interested, social media helps you offer sharp, targeted stuff that is high value to the right readers. So, you’re not just the floral expert. Maybe you’re the wedding flowers guru. Or you’re the one who’s going to show us the value in everyday flowers. Or you’re going to launch a flower-a-day blog to help us branch out a bit. Drill down. Slice your area in half. And again. Go niche and you’re on your way to better blogging.

Just Do It.

How do you learn to blog? By blogging. Badly at first, but improving with each push of the publish button. See, you’ll quickly learn what gets a response. People will comment, link to you, totally ignore posts that don’t matter to them. Don’t fret endlessly over what platform to use (choose one of the top ones and get cranking). Don’t overdo the fuss over your design (do something clean and sharp that lets people get to the info they want). Don’t overthink it. Start writing a little bit, and see what the world has to say.

Link, link, link.

The most important thing to do in a blog post is provide good links. The second most important thing is to provide really good links. And so on.

Write a Little. Often.

Readership and improved search engine rankings happen through this magical formula: lots of frequent, short posts with links. Have a big idea? Chop it up into a series of posts. Make your blog look alive with routine posts.

Listen. Learn. Rinse. Repeat.

It’s a conversation, right? How can you learn anything if you’re always running your mouth? Pay attention to comments. Respond to them. Use Technorati and other blog search services to track what people are saying about your company, your service, your area of expertise. Respond on their blogs. Great blogging is really about reading, understanding and synthesizing. The writing is mostly flourish.

Ping, Don’t Pitch.

My geek pals & I have a phrase we use when we tap each other for something:  ping.  When reaching out to other bloggers, don’t approach it as you would an old-school media relations pitch.  Offer something of interest to someone you know says Josh Hallett.  A great formulation.  Engage other bloggers.  Comment on their stuff.  By all means, let them know what you’re up to.  (You’re proud of your content, right?)  But, don’t do it in a mercenary way.  Focus on sharing valuable, relevant links & material. 

Spread the Words.

All blog software creates a feed that is automagically updated each time you post. (Sometimes you’ll see an inscrutable orange box that says XML or RSS. That’s what we mean.) Use these feeds to help you spread the word. You can reflow (or syndicate) your blog content to other parts of your Web site. Make sure to prominently feature your blog feed on your page, on your home page, etc. Let readers get your blog posts via email if that’s what they want. Include your blog address in your email footer.

Search Me.

As Elisa Camahort so rightly pointed out the other day, the phrase ‘blogs are great for Google juice’ gets repeated as though it were a form of magic. Can blogging help you show up better on Google and other search engines? Absolutely. It’s a nice, organic byproduct of having real conversations with people. It doesn’t happen by accident, though. Think about what you want to be known for. (Again, go niche.) Then write about those things. Use those terms. And give it time. Blogging is a long-term play with no good shortcuts.  As Jeremy Pepper cautions, though, "don’t just go into blogging for ‘Google Juice’ but because you have passion." Without passion for the topic, the blog won’t continually pull an audience.

Think Beyond the Blog.

When I say ‘blogging’, I really mean all the new tools we can use to self-publish our ideas. Blogs, sure, but there is also flickr and other photosharing services;delicious, digg and other bookmarking communities; podcasting at iTunes, Odeo, AudioBlog and other listing sites; YouTube, Google Video and other video sharing sites; forums, mailing lists and so much more. When you start looking around, the Edge suddenly feels endless. And very exciting.

Updated:

Mike Sansone adds a great point (Rebecca Blood’s incremental value process at work):

Share Your Knowledge.  Mike highlights a key part of the blogging way — sharing know how, linking out, providing value as a ticket into the conversation.  This is fundamental, and I’m glad Mike added his voice to this piece.   

Technorati Tags: better+blogging, brian oberkirch, elisa+camahort, flickr, mike+manuel

This echoes a point Tom Foremski made in a panel at New Communications Forum last week: that journalists are better suited than bloggers at ‘sorting out the crap’. (A point JD Lasica rebuked right away.)

Some of the blog response has taken the same tone: shame on Wal-Mart for pulling the wool over these poor little bloggers.

Jeff Jarvis counters (reasonably) that PR people place stories with journalists all the time & no one writes about how they are being taken advantage of.

More:

Richard Edelman
Mike Manuel
Dan Gillmor
Roundup at PR Linker
Marshall Manson (whose work is detailed in the piece)

Technorati Tags: edelman, wal-mart

• TechCrunch interview (32 MB mp3)
• Edgeio interview (19 MB mp3)
• Grab the Weblogs Worknotes podcast feed

Technorati Tags: edgeio, mikearrington, podcast, techcrunch

• David Parmet
• Shel Israel
• Mike Manuel
• Jeremy Pepper
• Josh Hallett

and later

• Phil Gomes
• Evelyn Rodriguez

I’ll try to index the conversation & questions later this weekend. For more on the New Communications Forum, track the conversation and check out the flickr photos.

Grab the feed for Weblogs Worknotes.

Technorati Tags: david parmet, evelyn rodriguez, jeremy+pepper, josh hallett, mike manuel, newcomm forum, phil gomes, pr2.0, shel israel

• Podcast page
• Weblogs Worknotes feed

Technorati Tags: edelman, micropersuasion, podcast, steve rubel

• Listen in (they pinged me within a few hours of my post)
• Respond appropriately (they used their own tool to communicate, which really cements the point)
• Keep the conversation up (quick replies to my question proved, again, that they are paying attention)

Technorati Tags: blog+monitoring, blogs, noah+glass, odeo, tim+roberts