FWD Thinking

What's on the mind of the
M Booth & Associates
FirstWord Digital team

FWD is:

Alyssa	Andrea	Andréa
Andrew	Danny	Cynthia
Danielle	Frani	Jen
Josh	Kim	Kristen
LaurenA.	LaurenM.	Maria
Pedro	Rachel	Rashidah
Rebecca	Rob	Sally
Tom

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Wed Sep 1

Now that we’ve recently launched our M Booth Facebook page (please “like” us, by the way!), we’ve been trying to add all sorts of fun features to it, to keep M Boothers and friends posted on what we’re up to. So far, this includes everything from information on open positions, to photos from our parties and softball games, to posts from our two blogs (this one and Better4You).

Unfortunately, it was tough to find an easy way to import both of our blogs’ RSS feeds to the page. Facebook recommends doing it through its Notes application, but you can only import one blog and it wasn’t updating regularly for us. There are other applications that allow you to add a “Blog” tab to your page but again, it only allows one blog feed to be imported. We really didn’t want to have to manually put up a link every time someone blogged, but we were having trouble finding another option.

Luckily, Rob happens to follow a 13-year-old technology wunderkind named Jack DeFuria, who mentioned a free tool called dlvr.it on Twitter the other day. Rob asked me to check it out and I promptly fell in love (with dlvr.it, not Rob…or Jack). Not only will dlvr.it import multiple blog feeds to your Facebook page (and Twitter, LinkedIn or Google Buzz too, if you so desire), it also provides analytics on how many people are clicking through on each post. Now each of our M Boother-penned blog posts seamlessly shows up on our Facebook page within minutes. Problem solved!

—Alyssa

Tags - m booth - facebook - alyssa - applications - blogs - RSS

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Mon Aug 2

Infographic: How Big Is the Internet?

Nazam over at the Penn Olson blog published the below infographic earlier today. Some stats the really caught my eye:

247 billion emails are sent every day
20 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute
There are 234 million websites and 126 million blogs

Enjoy the infographic!

- Rob

Tags - Email - blogs - infographics - rob - rob longert - websites - youtube - statistics

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Wed Jul 28

word. daily. (july 28, 2010)

Sweet Dreams: Adele is on maternity leave from her job as a advertising copywriter and as her “maternity leave hobby,” she started a blog – while her baby is napping, she creates a scene of what baby Mila could be dreaming about and snaps some pictures.

The Country’s Best: TCBY has rebranded itself (looks like their people took some inspiration from Pinkberry, if you ask us…) but thank sweet sassy molassey that they’ve updated their look. Their new concept store (including a self-serve station!) had a soft opening recently in Salt Lake City. Check it out – it actually has us excited about froyo again.

Shady Grilled Cheese: Long known as a family-friendly food, grilled cheese gets an underworld makeover thanks to the East Village’s Bread.Butter.Cheese, which adopts the business and delivery model of a drug dealer.

Click here to let us know that you’d like to be added to the mailing list for the monthly edition of “word.”

—Lauren

Tags - andrew - lauren - word. - food - blogs - photography

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Wed Jul 21

word. daily. (july 21, 2010)

Sci-Fi or Scary?: In Japan, digital billboards are using cameras to identify the sex and age of those who walk past and change the billboard message accordingly.

One Photo Reviews: Scott Davis is a movie reviewer – but instead or writing down what he thinks, he posts pictures that capture his reaction to the movie. Davis posts one picture that he feels has the right expression (“oy yoy yoy” for The Last Airbender, “debatable” for The A-Team) and posts it on his blog, One Photo Reviews.

You Spin Me Right Round: In attempts to tire out children before a flight, 1^stBank placed rotating billboards in airports. The whole idea is that kids will place their hands on a picture of a hand, and as the billboard spins, the child will walk round and round and eventually get tired – or throw up.

We All Bark For Ice Cream: Cruising the streets in Britain playing the Scooby Doo theme song is the K99 van – an ice cream truck for dogs – flavors sold (how do the dogs pay?) are: “Dog Eat Hog World,” a mixture of gammon and chicken sorbet and “Canine Cookie Crunch,” a mixture of dog biscuits, bones, and ice cream.

Click here to let us know that you’d like to be added to the mailing list for the monthly edition of “word.”

—Lauren

Tags - andrew - dogs - ice cream - lauren - word. - movies - blogs - advertising

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Wed Jan 13

The Do's and Don'ts of Online Publicity

This post by Lindsay Robertson, who blogs for Jezebel and New York Magazine’s Daily Intel and Vulture, is a must-read for any PR professional who pitches bloggers. Even if you already know all this (and you should), it’s good to revisit.

—Alyssa

Tags - Alyssa - PR - bloggers - blogs

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Tue Nov 10

Who Do Y Women Trust?

PopSugar has released a study called “Why Y Women,” which explores the way that the women of Generation Y interact with media and respond to advertising. One of the study’s key findings is that the women of Gen Y (between the ages of 18 and 34) are skeptical of the advertising constantly being flung at us and seek out authentic sources of brand opinion in order to judge what material is (or is not) worth our attention.

As my daily Gmail inbox piles up with notices from my favorite online shopping haunts, news resources, cooking blogs and nightlife guides, I can relate to the feeling of being overwhelmed by the amount of information available to me…I’m sure we all can. What is interesting about Generation Y however, is what we consider a “reliable source” of information. How is Generation Y deciding what messages to take home with us at the end of the day?

PopSugar’s study found that while Gen X and Baby Boomers sought brand approval from so-called “experts,” Gen Y women report relying on our peers much more heavily when judging a brand’s authenticity. For the first time, however, this peer group not only includes “real-life” friends and co-workers, but also online friends, blog writers, and anonymous reviewers.

Personally, I find that my Twitter feed serves as a great medium through which to receive reviews and suggestions that come from what I consider to be “reliable sources.” My Twitter feed provides a one-stop location to glean daily updates on news, products and events via tweets from friends, as well as brands, news Web sites and blogs that I have chosen to follow (thereby indicating my faith in these outlets as valued sources of information) . This ability to sift through clutter and deliver “trusted” information is a quality that Twitter can really capitalize on as the world of Web 2.0 continues to expand indefinitely.

-Kristin

Tags - Kristin - research - statistics - demographics - Millennials - Twitter - blogs

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Mon Oct 5

High School All Over Again: Eater Eats DBTH

This story about Eater’s acquisition of Down By The Hipster really made me feel like I was back in my depressing high school cafeteria today. The second and third paragraphs of Foster’s genius post are absolutely hilarious.

First he said this, and then she did that, which made him say this, and she said this back…but now they all are one big family and love (cough, hate) each other again.

Now that I’m out of the cafeteria and in the “real world,” it’s funny how this ridiculous banter just never gets old — the popular kids are still taunting one another and using each other to stay popular, while the rest of us read their blogs and wish we were in their shoes.

Nonetheless…we’ll miss you, DBTH. Stay true to your roots on Eater!

-Sally

Tags - blogs - sally - bloggers

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Wed Sep 30

So, some of you may have noticed that our lovely little blog is hosted by Tumblr, whereas others may be thinking, “Isn’t that what I drink The Macallan out of?” Tumblr is a platform for tumblelogs (also sometimes called microblogs), which are basically just shorter-form blogs. Tumblr was founded in 2007, and we have been using it for FWD Thinking since May 2008. As far as we know, we’re the only PR agency that hosts its blog on the platform, as it seems that Tumblr has gotten a bad rap as “not good for business.”
In the span of its short life, Tumblr has become known as the territory of urban hipsters who post photos of themselves every Wednesday and create themed blogs that eventually get book deals. But what it comes down to is that it’s just a platform. There are actually a wide variety of bloggers on Tumblr, and not all of them are wearing skinny jeans. I’m a huge Tumblr evangelist, because its one of the most forward-thinking, innovative blog platforms out there, and it just keeps evolving.
Plus, Tumblr is ahead of the curve in two developing Web trends — brevity and sociability. Especially due to the popularity of Twitter, people are moving away from long-form blogs and instead sharing briefer updates through microblogging or lifestreaming. I think people often become overwhelmed with the thought and the time it takes to write a long blog post, so they don’t post at all rather than posting shorter updates throughout the day or week.
In addition, almost every Web service these days is introducing a social aspect, whether it’s sharing, following or liking. I believe Tumblr was the first blogging platform to allow you to “follow” other bloggers and easily repost (“reblog”) their content, but Blogger implemented following capabilities soon after. There’s even a new tumblelog competitor on the scene called Posterous, but I remain devoted to the original.
I hope the misconception that Tumblr is not appropriate for hosting business blogs will soon change — and I think it will, now that companies like Newsweek, BlackBook and the Travel Channel are jumping on board. If you know of any other corporate Tumblrs, please let us know in the comments. Who knows, maybe they’ll inspire you to start your own!
—Alyssa

So, some of you may have noticed that our lovely little blog is hosted by Tumblr, whereas others may be thinking, “Isn’t that what I drink The Macallan out of?” Tumblr is a platform for tumblelogs (also sometimes called microblogs), which are basically just shorter-form blogs. Tumblr was founded in 2007, and we have been using it for FWD Thinking since May 2008. As far as we know, we’re the only PR agency that hosts its blog on the platform, as it seems that Tumblr has gotten a bad rap as “not good for business.”

In the span of its short life, Tumblr has become known as the territory of urban hipsters who post photos of themselves every Wednesday and create themed blogs that eventually get book deals. But what it comes down to is that it’s just a platform. There are actually a wide variety of bloggers on Tumblr, and not all of them are wearing skinny jeans. I’m a huge Tumblr evangelist, because its one of the most forward-thinking, innovative blog platforms out there, and it just keeps evolving.

Plus, Tumblr is ahead of the curve in two developing Web trends — brevity and sociability. Especially due to the popularity of Twitter, people are moving away from long-form blogs and instead sharing briefer updates through microblogging or lifestreaming. I think people often become overwhelmed with the thought and the time it takes to write a long blog post, so they don’t post at all rather than posting shorter updates throughout the day or week.

In addition, almost every Web service these days is introducing a social aspect, whether it’s sharing, following or liking. I believe Tumblr was the first blogging platform to allow you to “follow” other bloggers and easily repost (“reblog”) their content, but Blogger implemented following capabilities soon after. There’s even a new tumblelog competitor on the scene called Posterous, but I remain devoted to the original.

I hope the misconception that Tumblr is not appropriate for hosting business blogs will soon change — and I think it will, now that companies like Newsweek, BlackBook and the Travel Channel are jumping on board. If you know of any other corporate Tumblrs, please let us know in the comments. Who knows, maybe they’ll inspire you to start your own!

—Alyssa

Tags - Alyssa - blogs - bloggers - Twitter

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Mon Sep 28

If I was forced to adhere to Patrick Moberg’s New Media Workout Plan, my upper body strength would be out of control (due to my Twitter and Tumblr addictions). However, maybe that would be a good thing.
—Alyssa

If I was forced to adhere to Patrick Moberg’s New Media Workout Plan, my upper body strength would be out of control (due to my Twitter and Tumblr addictions). However, maybe that would be a good thing.

—Alyssa

Tags - Alyssa - social media - Twitter - blogs

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Tue Sep 22

Must I even state my bias anymore? Okay, fine, blah, I’m obsessed with the NYT. And yet they make it so easy! Here’s the newest reason why: Mediaweek reports that The New York Times Company is building search products to search through Twitter, ultimately hoping to generate insightful commentary for news items. The company already employs a similar tool on its superluxe blog The Moment, which aggregates relevant Twitter fodder from its editors and readers.
I think Twitter’s internal search is pretty lame, so I’m excited about this development. It’ll certainly help those of us who rely on and monitor online media, plus it deepens the ever-widening boundaries of journalism—citizen and otherwise.
-Elise

Must I even state my bias anymore? Okay, fine, blah, I’m obsessed with the NYT. And yet they make it so easy! Here’s the newest reason why: Mediaweek reports that The New York Times Company is building search products to search through Twitter, ultimately hoping to generate insightful commentary for news items. The company already employs a similar tool on its superluxe blog The Moment, which aggregates relevant Twitter fodder from its editors and readers.

I think Twitter’s internal search is pretty lame, so I’m excited about this development. It’ll certainly help those of us who rely on and monitor online media, plus it deepens the ever-widening boundaries of journalism—citizen and otherwise.

-Elise

Tags - Elise - Twitter - blogs - search

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Wed Aug 19

“ Social media is the media. Pete Cashmore, Mashable.com

Tags - Maria - social media - blogs

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Thu Aug 13

Google Reader has been becoming much more social lately, and the newest feature is the ability to automatically export items to other sites. If you go into your Google Reader Settings and click on the “Send To” tab, you can enable exporting to Delicious, Facebook, Twitter, or a handful of other sites. Now it’s even easier to share the news you’re interested in! By the way, if you’re so inclined, you can view my shared Google Reader items here.
—Alyssa

Google Reader has been becoming much more social lately, and the newest feature is the ability to automatically export items to other sites. If you go into your Google Reader Settings and click on the “Send To” tab, you can enable exporting to Delicious, Facebook, Twitter, or a handful of other sites. Now it’s even easier to share the news you’re interested in! By the way, if you’re so inclined, you can view my shared Google Reader items here.

—Alyssa

Tags - Alyssa - Google - RSS - blogs - social networks - Facebook - Twitter

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Mon Aug 3

Saveur Magazine Launches New Blog: The Feed

James Oseland, Editor-in-Chief of Saveur Magazine, has launched a new blog on the Saveur.com homepage that provides links to fascinating food finds all over the Web. It’s called The Feed, (not to be confused with Josh Ozersky’s The Feedbag).

- Rebecca

Tags - Rebecca - blogs

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Wed Jul 1

Survey: Bloggers and their relationships with PR

A recent survey of 449 bloggers from 21 countries found that 90% of them welcome contact from PR people. (They like us, they really like us!) In fact, over 96% of American bloggers said they are contacted by PR folks on a weekly basis.

Many bloggers said they appreciate it when publicists are able to supply photographs, charts/graphs and videos. The bloggers’ pet peeves about PR pros included:

PR people continue to blindly send corporate press releases to bloggers.
PR professionals are failing to read the blogs and truly understand their target bloggers’ communities.
They seem to expect bloggers to post corporate material, demonstrating a lack of understanding of the medium and the very reason why bloggers blog.
They treat bloggers as they would journalists - not as influencers, which is more appropriate.

Definitely some good points that we always keep in mind here at M Booth!

—Alyssa

Tags - Alyssa - blogs - PR - bloggers - survey - research - statistics

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Tue Jun 30

Study: Older C-Level Execs Avoid Twitter, Blogs

A recent study unsurprisingly found that only 1 percent of top executives over the age of 50 at U.S. companies provide daily contributions to a work-related blog, and only 4 percent say they blog a few times a week. In comparison, 35 percent of 40-something executives and 56 percent of those under the age of 40 post on a work-related blog daily.

In addition, only 3 percent of the 50+ execs are on Twitter, while 34 percent of 40-somethings and 56 percent of the under-40 crowd like to microblog. Come on, folks — if 77-year-old Bill Marriott can maintain a corporate blog, you can too!

—Alyssa

Tags - Alyssa - Twitter - demographics - corporate - blogs - research - statistics

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