Everyone these days wants a blog. Blogs are known to be the most frequently updated—and thus most visited—facet of Web sites, and often form the crux of an organization’s online impact. Few, however, realize just how time-consuming and difficult blogging is.
Indeed, running a blogging consists not only in penning posts, but also in corralling them from colleagues and possibly guest contributors, editing them, and promoting them—not to mention moderating and responding to comments. As such, when considering a group blog for your organization, the following questions may facilitate a decision. (more…)
The staple of public relations is the press release. It’s been around forever; follows generally agreed guidelines for format, content, and length; and still succeeds in its objective to publicize the item in question.
And yet, bound by stale conventions that suffocate originality and don’t play well with multimedia, the press release has become obsolete. It’s not that there’s no longer a need to announce big news formally. It’s that there’s a better way to do it than drafting 400 words of boilerplate.
Indeed, as Claire Cain Miller reported in a much-discussed article last week, the pr agency representing Flickr never issued a release on its behalf—not even when Yahoo acquired the photo-sharing Web site. Similarly, when Google has exciting news to share, it does not use a wire service.
Rather, both companies self-publish blog posts. They do so, I suspect, not because blogs are hipper, but because they’re more genuine, more personal, and more flexible than their old media counterparts. Instead of a flack ghostwriting quotes for a CEO, the individual(s) who managed the project can craft a first-person narrative recounting the project’s past, present and future with pictures and videos and links. Then, as other bloggers pick up the post, “two days later, BusinessWeek calls,” as Donna Sokolsky Burke, of Spark PR, puts it.
When you visit Google’s online “press center,” the first thing listed is not press releases. It’s blog posts. If you think this is accidental, think again.
The press release is dead. Long live the press release.
Posted by: K Street Cafe Editor
Twitter, Flickr, Facebook Make Blogs Look So 2004 (Wired)
Paul Boutin examines how social media websites like Facebook and Twitter have over taken blogging as the most popular form of expression.
Crisis Communication for the Social Web (The Buzz Bin)
The Buzz Bin takes a look at the need for a plan to listen and communicate effectively when a crisis hits your organization online.
Posted by: K Street Cafe Editor
Ford Looks to Expand Its Global Social Outreach (Word of Mouth Marketing)
With a new executive heading up its online outreach efforts, Ford is hoping to get back into the social media game to appeal to younger car shoppers and connect with its global customer base.
Blogging Like The World Depended On It (Newsweek)
Author Brian Braiker takes a look at change.org, a soon-to-be revamped online community that is looking to have an impact on 13 key policy issues ranging from climate change to immigration by keeping activists engaged beyond the November elections.
Earlier today, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Adfero Group and the Politico sponsored the last event in the Innovative Advocacy series: Intelligence, Media Monitoring, and Tracking the Buzz.
Panelists included three K Street Café contributors: Peter Waldheim from the Blog Council, Chris Kinnan from FreedomWorks and Brad Fitch from Knowlegis. Others on the two panel discussions, moderated by Mathew Zablud of Adfero Group and Brad Peck from the U.S. Chamber, were Chris Ramsey from Radian6, James Tipton from Google, and Evan Tracey from TNS Media Strategies.
Here were the key points from the two panels: (more…)
Posted by: K Street Cafe Editor
Crushing failure for lobbyists (The Hill)
Despite all the hard work of lobbyists in the past week to pass a bailout bill in Congress, yesterday’s vote that defeated the proposed legislation shows that politicians are actually listening to their constituents.
Commenting 2.0 (Community Guy)
New technology promises to create a global blog commenting system that will “revolutionize” the way that blog readers will provide feedback to engage in the conversation.
When Ed Feulner took the helm of The Heritage Foundation more than 30 years ago, one of his principal objectives was getting policy information to Congress quickly. Other think tanks in Washington produced very good research, but more often than not it arrived too late to make a difference.
Staffers searching for policy solutions still turn to Washington’s think tanks for answers. But unlike 30 years ago, there are more voices and countless new ways (such as video) to educate lawmakers. The 24-hour news cycle can also quickly shift a congressional debate over legislation. Failure to respond in a timely fashion can leave you in the dust. (more…)
Posted by: K Street Cafe Editor
Media Bloggers Association Launches Liability Insurance, Legal Advisory for Bloggers (What’s Next)
Bloggers take a large risk in performing their task, but now protection is available to them. Taking into account the many lawsuits that have come about because of blog posts, the Media Bloggers Association (MBA) has started offering liability insurance.
The Future of Your Newspaper (Mental Floss)
Print media has been having a difficult time surviving with more and more people getting their news online. However, this new technology could provide newspapers a new portable outlet.
Advertising Without Radio or Television, Only Word of Mouth (Word of Mouth Marketing)
Don’t think advertising without TV, radio or print will work for you organization? Here is an example of how word of mouth marketing can be used to execute a successful campaign.
Financial Meltdown: Don’t Cry for K Street (National Journal)
With the financial system in ruins from this week’s fallout, the nation’s economic system will definitely be changing. The National Journal examines how lobbyists may have a lot of influence in the reshaping of economic regulations and policy.
