Inside PR 3.32 [ 20:21 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This week, Gini Dietrich talks about what it was like to be in Europe when the news of the Boston marathon explosion reached her. The reality of knowing almost instantly about something combined with a sense of distance fed by different mainstream media news agendas and the sense of being out of sync that occurs in a different time zone.

How can we assign credibility to sources we encounter for the first time during a fast breaking news event? While mainstream media may occasionally lapse, can the application of professional journalistic practices be counted on to produce more reliable coverage in the whole?

Martin points to the recent AP Twitter hacking incident, which he says drives home the responsibility we all have to approach anything we hear or see with a degree of skepticism.

Joe likens this to moving around in a darkened room. We know we’ve had contact with something, but we can’t really see what it is. Judgment and speculation become overly close neighbors at times like these.

How do you assign authority and credibility in the era of instant news?

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Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com, join the Inside PR Google+ Community, join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, message us @inside_pr on Twitter, or connect with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter. Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Kristine Simpson and Ashlea LeCompte.

Inside PR 3.31: How are making your living in the world of integrated communications? [ 15:46 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

We’re living in a period of profound change in communications channels and tools. How will you change your communications practices to reflect these underlying changes in the communications networks, expectations and participants? What are the opportunities? What are the challenges?

Gini says that the current set of changes are accelerating a move to agency consolidation that she has been observing since the turn of the century. But while we as professionals are finding ourselves in integrated agencies, we are feeling pressure to become expert in related fields – SEO, content marketing, paid promotion. We have to be able to operated above and across the silos as they break down.

Martin Waxman feels that the greatest challenge for PR practitioners is to break out of the publicist mode once and for all. The move to content journalism and content marketing plays to the PR practitioner’s traditional storytelling strengths. And if you’re looking at your career, don’t disregard this path to the future.

Joe points to the trend to anchor integrated communications in marketing departments and marketing programs, places and activities that measure real results against defined objectives. PR practitioners must become platform agnostic, married not solely to earned media, but open to paid media as well as owned media.

Gini notes that she has seen search firms competing for some of these assignments. The challenge for these firms is that they are great at writing for robots, not for human beings. The complete firm will write for both human beings and the search robots. The success of PR firms or any firm will rest on their ability to pull together in one team the analytic and storytelling skills to offer truly compelling, effective content marketing.

Finally, Martin asks how people will be able to make a living as content creators when online outlets like Huffington Post and Forbes.com pay nothing or very little for quality content. Joe suggests that most won’t. There are few Mathew Ingrams or Om Maliks, few people who have something to say, day in and day out. Most of us write more infrequently on a narrower range of topics. As it ever was, few will make a living directly from their content creation. Most of us will of necessity rely on earning our living in jobs in which we benefit from reputations enhanced by creating and publishing smart content.

Also in this episode, Martin gives a plug to the digital communications class at University of Toronto. The next course starts in May. So, if you’d interested in taking this, contact Martin.

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Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com, join the Inside PR Google+ Community, join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, message us @inside_pr on Twitter, or connect with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter. Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Kristine Simpson and Ashlea LeCompte.

Inside PR 2.91 [ 20:06:00 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This week, Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman and Joseph Thornley talk about new social management tool Jugnoo, tablet computers, Facebook timelines for pages and a new feature in social media measurement tool Sysomos.

Last week we reported that Jugnoo, a new social media management console service had launched in open beta. We received a comment from Danny Brown telling us we pronounced it wrong. Oops. And Gini and I talk about when a service like Jugnoo should ask potential users to install a plug in or open access to a user’s Website data.

We also talk about the rapid adoption of tablets in the workplace. Two years ago, we considered our notebook computers to be the go-to mobile devices. Today, we each use a tablet computer. We wonder how long it will be before we will be able to reduce the number of devices. The limiting factor on this is the evolution of tablets to include both the hardware and software to support all the content creation we want to do.

Timelines for pages is being rolled out to all users at the end of the month. Gini is keen on timelines. She’s watched as content that she had long ago posted to the Arment Dietrich page had resurfaced. Old content becomes more accessible. Joe is skeptical of the value of timelines for small businesses. Many small businesses have limited resources to devote to social media. And it seems to him that corporate page owners will have to devote considerable energy and resources to keep their content fresh. And this may not be a priority for may businesses.

Finally, we talk about the integration of Google Analytics into Sysomos’ Heartbeat social media monitoring service. A nice addition that makes a good service better.

What do you think? Are we on the right track? Missing something? Do you have a different view?

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Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com, join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, message us @inside_pr on Twitter, or connect with Gini Dietrich, Joe Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Katie Charbonneau. Inside PR producer: Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.77 [ 17:00 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This week, Jay Baer, of Convince and Convert and The Now Revolution fame, is our guest.

We interviewed him at the PRSA International Conference in Orlando last month and thought now was a great time to run it.

It’s 2012 planning time so we discuss with him the things people ought to remember when using the social tools, trends to watch, and what to consider for next year.

A few things you want to pay particular attention to while you listen:

- His keynote topic at the conference was the goal of corporate culture in speed, authenticity, and response, not about social media.
- He talks about how social media success isn’t about the tools and technology. It’s about corporate culture and being social instead of doing social.
- He wants you to remember that the tools always change. If you focus on the tools, when they die, go public, or get bought out, you’re going to be left with the smoking wreckage of a plan not focused on strategy.
- He says the goal is not to be good at social media. The goal is to be good at business, using social media.

We ask him what are the three things he wants you to take away and he outlines them for us.

We also discuss how, as consumers we have so much more information about at our fingertips, it’s important for companies to be sustainable, human, approachable, and engage to help us make our decisions.

Ending with what’s next for Jay Baer and the four words Martin takes away every time he hears Jay speak.

It’s been said multiple times during the podcast, but if you’ve never heard Jay speak, you’ll quickly understand why he’s one of the industry’s most sought-after experts.

He walks the walk, is highly engaging, and is really, really smart.

Enjoy!

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We’d love to hear from you.

Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com, join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, message us @inside_pr on Twitter, or connect with Gini Dietrich, Joe Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.46 [ 17:05 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

It’s no surprise, if you spend any time on Twitter, that they celebrated their fifth birthday on Monday.

Yes, on March 21, 2006, co-founder Jack Dorsey sent his first tweet. And, according to Martin Waxman, they are “officially a toddler. They can walk and talk and are past their terrible twos.” It seems incredible that it’s only been five years, but also amazing that it has been that long.

A few interesting statistics:

• It took three years, two months, and one day for Twitter to reach one billion tweets. Then it took one week to reach another billion.
• There were 465 tweets per second when Michael Jackson died last June, but the current record is 6,939 tweets per second.
• A year ago, the average number of tweets sent in a day were 50 million. Yet last month there were 140 million tweets per day and 177 million just last week.

But, on their fifth birthday, they’re changing their terms of service because they have to make some money. And, in the process, they’ve turned away the developer community who helped them get as large as they are.

Alexandra Samuel said it best in her Harvard Business Review blog.

So as Twitter locks the door, some geeks somewhere are coming up with a new idea that will fill the void. This infinitely more flexible and risk-embracing startup will explode onto the social media scene with the next thing, or maybe even the Next Big Thing. And then sometime in 2015, it, too, will trade in creative chaos for business sense.

And, perhaps what Dave Winer, the father of podcasting and RSS feeds, has in mind with his new Minimal Blogging Tool that allows us to keep our content on our own servers. It allows us to push that content wherever we need to to reach our audiences, but we own it so it can’t be affected when the social networks change their terms of service.

Additionally you’ll hear in this week’s podcast:

• Springtime in Gov 2.0 in that Canada is finally joining Australia, the U.K., and the States in the social and the open movement;
• Third Tuesday this month is the best (and misses) of SXSW;
• The “Dear CEO” eBook has been published and can be found at Spin Sucks;
• The New York Times is charging for content; and
• Martin talks about what he’ll receive as immediate past president of CPRS, come June.

We’d love to get your thoughts on Twitter’s birthday or any of the other topics we discuss this week.

Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com, join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, message us @inside_pr on Twitter, or connect with Gini Dietrich, Joe Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Yasmine Kashefi.

Inside PR 2.39 [ 21:27 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

We’re trying something new starting this week. Rather than give you the time sections of the podcast, we’re taking a cue from NPR and writing an accompanying blog post with each podcast.

So here we are…on our 39th (can that be right??) episode of Inside PR. This week we answer a bunch of questions from our listeners and we touch on the crisis in Egypt.

Shel Holtz sends in an audio question (we love him!) and Guy Skipworth asks about former employees having online relationships with your clients after they leave your agency. You can listen to our discussion about both in the podcast.

Long-time listener Danny Starr says,

“Just catching up on old episodes and the discussion on “making” viral video was really good. One thing that I think needs to be pointed out about viral video is that you never know what’s going to hit it big… and while there are things you can do like capture something funny or unexpected in the footage, I think that anyone setting out to achieve the result of having a video go viral – and we need to be clear that viral is a result, not really a strategy – needs to be putting up many different things.”

The thing is, Danny, we agree with you. In fact, at Arment Dietrich, when we get a call about making a viral video, we always joke internally that we’ll create the video the client wants and then have two guys kicking each other in the nuts so it does go viral. Not really a strategy, but we’re certain it would work! And yes, I say “nuts” in the recording.

And, while we don’t spend much time talking about what’s going on in Egypt, we do ask (and answer) an important question, “Is Internet use a human right?”

Hope you enjoy this week’s Inside PR!

And tell us…what do you think of the new format? Do you have other comments? Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com, join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, or message us @inside_pr on Twitter. Or connect with Martin Waxman, Joe Thornley, and me on Twitter.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Yasmine Kashefi.

Inside PR 2.36 [ 18:29 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Comments? Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com, visit the Inside PR Blubrry site, leave us a comment on the Inside PR show blog or message us @inside_pr on Twitter.

This week on Inside PR, Martin, Gini and Joe discuss viral videos and Quora, the question and answer website that everyone is talking about.

0:27 Martin opens the show.

1:32 Martin shares a story about talking social media with his local MP.

2:55 Gini starts off with the first topic of the episode: The homeless man with  golden voice.

4:38 Martin thinks it’s a great example of the kind of videos that go viral.

6:38 Joe reminds  us that there is no set formula for a viral video.

9:30 Joe thinks videos go viral because the appeal to a particular interest or cultural background. Unless you create a video with that in mind, it’s unlikely to be successful.

10:12 Martin recalls a panel he saw at South by South West Interactive and they gave three tips about making a great video: 1) develop a great story, 2) the production values need to match your story and 3) distribution and promotion.

11:34 Joe talks about the second topic of the show: Quora.com, a question and answer website and community. He thinks it’s a great research tool.

14:05 Gini wonders whether Quora is a social network or an open, unmoderated content reference website?

16:07 Joe says Quora is becoming a lot like a social network as it’s pure discussion, but on searchable answer basis.

16:30 Martin has recently signed up and is looking forward to playing with the website.

17:20 Martin closes the show.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Yasmine Kashefi.

Inside PR 2.35 [ 18:51 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Comments? Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com, visit the Inside PR Blubrry site, leave us a comment on the Inside PR show blog or message us @inside_pr on Twitter.

This week on Inside PR, Martin, Gini and Joe kick off the new year by talking about what they think will be the next big thing in 2011.

0:24 Martin opens the show.

1:36 Following up to the previous episode on Inside PR, Martin mentions that this week, they will be talking about three things that may be on the next big thing in social media or PR.

3:40 Using the example of Facebook raising 500 million dollars from Goldman Sachs, Joe wonders if this trend will lead to companies rushing to sell rather than thoroughly develop their product.

6:16 Gini feels like it’s 2000 again with all the money being thrown around these days.

6:35 Joe hopes that government will go past the experimentation stage with social media and really embrace it.

8:05 Martin wonders if the WikiLeaks controversy will affect how governments approach open data.

8:55 Joe points out that WikiLeaks wasn’t the result of a social media problem, but rather a leaky employee problem.

11:05 Gini talks about the FCC’s decision on net neutrality and how there are two versions of the internet now.

14:00 On the CBC Spark podcast, Barbara Van Shewick was interviewed about internet architecture and innovation. Joe recommends listening to it as the interview explores interesting and complex issues.

17:15 Martin closes the show.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Yasmine Kashefi.

Inside PR 2.34 [ 21:57 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Comments? Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com, visit the Inside PR Blubrry site, leave us a comment on the Inside PR show blog or message us @inside_pr on Twitter.

This week on Inside PR, Martin, Gini and Joe finish discussing the trends of 2010 in their final episode of the year.

0:30 Martin opens the show.

1:36 Joe continues on the discussion by talking about his next trend, the social networking darlings: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

3:32 Gini references a chart by Business Insider that demonstrates how Twitter is being used.

4:00 Joe cites two Canadian examples of how Twitter is being used as a newswire of sorts.

6:16 Gini brings up the next trend: The PR industry talks about measurement a lot but we don’t really seem to know how to do it.

7:31 Joe mentions a post by Jeremiah Owyang on the subject that he recommends checking out.

8:35 Martin doesn’t think algorithims can explain it all. We need a human perspective.

9:00 Martin talks about a new trend: Too many PR practitioners are focusing too much on broadcasting and not enough on building relationships.

10:06 Joe talks about his final trend for 2010: The drop-off of unique, interesting voices in the blogosphere. He mentions a blog post by Brian Solis on the state of the blogosphere in 2010 on the importance of blogging.

13:26 Gini fears another dot-com burst with all the Google-Groupon type deals taking place.

16:05 Martin announces the last trend of the episode: The reemergence of Wikis.

19:40 Martin recaps the trends discussed in this week’s episode.

20:35 Martin closes the show.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Yasmine Kashefi.