December 2008
77 posts
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The Governator Takes to Twitter and Widgets to... →
Arnold Schwarzenneger is mad and he’s taking it to the social media streets. The California governor/action movie star is on Twitter, and has a widget in an effort to try to get his budget passed.
-Maria
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60 New York Times profiles on Twitter →
Here’s a helpful list of a few New York Times editors on Twitter!
-Maria
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WOM: Real People Win Deals, Corporate Blogs Spin... →
A new study found that 67% of consumers are likely to pass along information from an actual (“real live”) brand representative to other people, and 62% of them felt that information received from a brand representative was more valuable than advertising or promotional materials. This is why many of the successful brands on Twitter (including our own client @Travelzoo) are run by actual...
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Social Media Marketing to Grow in '09
A study by Junta42 that was covered by MediaPost this morning found that over half of marketing and publishing decision makers will increase spending on custom media and social media initiatives.
While this is hardly surprising news, it does provide reassurance to those of us practicing in and exploring the field; especially when the world of PR seems to be moving in this direction as traditional...
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Twitority and Tweetree
It seems that many hardcore Twitter users and Web developers were bored during the holidays, because a couple of new Twitter tools launched over the long weekend.
The first one, Twitority, is an authority-based Twitter search that ranks search results by number of followers. It was spawned after Seesmic CEO Loïc Le Meur blogged about the need for such a thing just the day before. Of course, it...
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The Future Of Social Search (Or Why Google Should... →
In the age of social networking, it’s impossible to really be “friends” with all of your Facebook and MySpace pals, let alone keep up with their interests and life happenings. That’s why I totally agree with this article from TechCrunch, pushing for a more efficient social search where your friends with keywords that match your Google search will show up.
-Maria
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Mashable.com's 2008 How-To Guide
Mashable.com has put together an invaluable How-To Guide for influential social media platforms. Pete Cashmore shares insight on how to leverage Twitter, Facebook, online video and blogging (among other topics), in what is effectively a crash-course in social media.
-Elise
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Viral Marketing? →
Everyone’s favorite marketing guru, Seth Godin, recently blogged about the idea of viral marketing and how the term is often misused.
“Something being viral is not, in an of itself, viral marketing” writes Godin. “Who cares that 32,000,000 people saw your stupid video? It didn’t market you or your business in a tangible, useful way.”
Many companies launch...
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Lactivists wage breastfeeding war on Facebook →
This is such a weird story I thought it had to be shared. More than 61,000 women have signed up for a virtual “nurse-in” on Facebook this Saturday after the uber-popular social networking site took down profile pictures of women nursing their babies. Another unfortunate example of why you should not mess with the mommies.
Any mommies want to weigh in on this?
-Maria
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Palm's Facebook Campaign Gets Quick Results →
I had to write something about Palm’s Claüs campaign for the new Centro because I laugh just a little bit whenever I see advertising for it. I guess I’m not the only one because the Claüs Facebook fan page has been wildly successful since it launched in late November. User adoption might be attributed to the concept, which is hilarious (the actor who plays Claüs nails it), OR the...
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NYTimes.com launches REPRESENT
NYTimes.com has launched Represent, a tool that allows users to search for all of their elected New York City representatives by zip code. Mediabistro posits this is a reaction to the first “Internet Presidency,” but I’m just glad to have a quick and easy to way to see what’s going on in my ‘hood.
I searched my zip code (10128) and was happy to learn that I am...
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Andy Samberg Knows the Power of Social Media
NBC has been fairly guarded with their content in the digital realm. Usually clips and videos, from shows such as SNL, that are posted without official permission are quickly taken down. MediaPost reports that this is not the case with a recent sketch featuring Andy Samberg. Because Samberg’s production company produced the skit, NBC does not have to right to pull it down. NBC may want to...
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Cadillac Launches Web Campaign For V-Series →
Cadillac invited 1,000 driving enthusiasts to a racetrack in upstate New York to test drive its V-series model. Each exhilarating (or meant to be exhilarating) test drive was recorded by different camera angles and put on the web to be shared at Cadillacdrivinglab.com.
-Maria
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The 12 Days of PR Christmas →
David Mullen wrote a cute public relations version of “The 12 Days of Christmas” for his blog, Communications Catalyst. Something to get you in the spirit on these last few days of work before the holidays!
On the first day of Christmas the PR gods gave to me a crisis at 7 p.m. on a Friday.
On the second day of Christmas the PR gods gave to me two embargoes broken.
On the third day...
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New York Times Launches Instant Op-Ed →
The New York Times website has announced that it will be launching a “rapid response” Op-Ed section within the next month. Comprised of three editors and one web producer, the team will provide online Op-eds according to breaking news; this format will also allow for reader commentary, which will no doubt fuel some gripping dialogue. Or not.
-Maria
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Pancheros Gets Twitter … Kinda →
I’ve never eaten at Panchero’s, as I believe it is a California-based establishment and I spend 98% of my time in the tri-state area. However, I think they are on to something special by instituting a Twitter campaign, and so does Ted Murphy from the blog Ted.me, which is why he came up with a couple of ingenious ways for Panchero’s to expand their tasty outreach.
-Maria
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Death To The Embargo →
In case you haven’t heard yet, Michael Arrington declared war on the PR industry yesterday when he announced that TechCrunch will no longer be honoring embargoes.
We’ve never broken an embargo at TechCrunch. Not once. Today that ends. From now our new policy is to break every embargo. We’ll happily agree to whatever you ask of us, and then we’ll just do whatever we feel like right after...
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“Young people don’t want to rely on a Godlike figure from above to tell...”
– Rupert Murdoch, as quoted in The Long Tail
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Check out #journchat on Monday nights →
Publicist/Twitter maniac Sarah Evans has organized a weekly Twitter dialogue between journalists, bloggers and PR professionals, called Journchat. Every Monday night between 7 and 10 p.m. CST, any posts tagged with “#journchat” facilitate the conversation between media professionals.
I stumbled upon Journchat last night when I saw that TravelSavvyMom, who we’ve worked with for...
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Twittering Journalists →
The Flack has a helpful list of other lists featuring journalists on Twitter. BusinessWeek journalists, in particular, are all over it.
—Alyssa
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“The music industry (1.0) is dead and being reborn in 2.0. To get ahead and find...”
– MC Hammer, giving PR advice on Twitter
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“There are four ways brands can be on Twitter: 1) Monitor only 2) Branded Account...”
– Jeremiah Owyang, Forrester Research
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8 Experts Predict How Web 2.0 Will Evolve In 2009 →
I’ve been reading a lot of material projecting that the end of Web 2.0 is already among us; Fast Company, however, believes in the theory of evolution.
rodrakic:
2008 was the year that Web 2.0 became more mainstream. More ad agencies, businesses, and non-profits used Web 2.0 tools as a way to build community and relationships, cross promote products and issues, and integrate their online...
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Study Finds Coupon Usage Is Intensifying →
A new study from Packaged Facts reports that 87% of all consumers prefer to shop at retailers that offer coupons. On-shelf coupon machines tend to be a favorite of consumers, but online coupons are quickly gaining momentum. I never turn down a Sephora friends and family coupon.
-Maria
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“Don Graham understands how to build and manage an organization for the long...”
– Mark Zuckerberg on Don Graham, Washington Post CEO, joining the Facebook board of directors
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Google takes two with Gmail-SMS chat →
Google has relaunched a service of Gmail Labs where you can send text messages to someone’s phone directly from your Gmail. Now I anticipate even more “When are you coming home for Christmas?!?!” text messages from my mom.
—Alyssa
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The Ultimate Social Media Etiquette Handbook →
Take a look at this awesome blog post from Techipedia on social media etiquette. I get asked about this topic often by M Boothers, so check out the info right here!
-Maria
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Google Is Great
Google is great — it’s the best search engine on the web, it’s ubiquitous enough to become a verb, it saves people time, and it helps non-profits raise money and advance their causes.
A Marketing Vox article today reports that iGoogle is now offering customized skins branded with non-profits’ images and messaging.
-Tom
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Falling stock markets spur searches for love... →
Apparently the bad economy has inspired more Americans to find someone to cuddle up with in harsh times.
“On days when the U.S. Dow Jones industrial (average) went down by a lot, by more than 100 points, more people were likely to log in and spend more time on the site,” Gian Gonzaga, senior research scientist at Web site eHarmony told Reuters.
“It makes a lot of sense....
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In An Unscientific Survey, Looks Like My... →
Danny and I were discussing just yesterday the changing demographic of Facebook users. Coincidentally, Catherine P. Taylor’s latest Social Media Insider blog post confirms our theory.
-Maria
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“MySpace is my wife, Facebook is my mistress.”
– The Alchemist author Paulo Coelho
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Consumers Distrust Corporate Blogs →
A new Forrester Research study found that only 16 percent of people trust what corporate blogs have to say. The highest amount of trust for companies comes through word-of-mouth e-mails from friends and people you know. This is no surprise, since studies show that the benefit of WOM has has been perceived as high in past years.
-Maria