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June 29, 2005

From bilingual newsrooms to multilingual blogs

By Kai Blum

Corporations and their target audiences are becoming more and more multinational and the importance of Spanish in the U.S. is also rising, but there are no well-known bi- and multilingual company blogs yet.

The currently closest thing to a multilingual corporate blog is, as Luistxo Fernandez points out, a company news site that has an index page with the latest posts - the newer ones up, the other down - that allows the reader to switch languages by the click of a button or link. The news sites of DaimlerChrysler and Siemens are good examples for such a bilingual approach in a near-blogging environment. Therefore, it would come as no surprise if companies that already have this kind of multilingual web publishing capability and experience are going to be pioneers in publishing multilingual blogs.

Multilingual web publishing experience or not, anyone who is going to attempt to publish corporate blogs in more than one language can draw from the knowledge of non-corporate multilingual bloggers such as the aforementioned Fernandez, who blogs in three languages (Basque, English, Spanish). Fernandez summarized his experiences in Ten Commandments for bilingual blogs, a list of features with which true multilingual blogs should comply. Many of the principles, e.g. monolingual pages, language change options on every page, and interface and content bilingualism are already familiar features of multilingual corporate news sites. This again makes it most likely that corporations with such communications experience are going to be first to take the step from bilingual newsrooms to bi- and multilingual blogs.

Posted by staff at 01:01 PM
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June 24, 2005

Coursey Misses the Point on Podcasting

By Christy Brewer

David Coursey writes that podcasting is going to be a loser. The tease to his article on publish.com admits that his arguments are vague, but he gives it a shot. He begins by talking about the technical difficulties iTunes has had, comparing to competing Windows Media and Real formats.

His big point in “calling the loser” is his claim that podcasting will not make it as a mass medium. Now, he admits that he’s good at calling losers, but I think he’s missing the point. He likens the flood of podcasts to the launch of just about every electronic communication medium: the flurry of people who start providing content, followed by the resulting plunge as they lose interest. It happened with desktop publishing, web sites, blogs, and now podcasting.

Is that a reason to call the technology a loser? Is that a reason for a company to dismiss podcasting as a valuable communication channel? Podcasting makes it easier for companies to publish audio – speeches, reporting calls, and even product announcements. Sure, everyone rushed in to desktop publishing and web sites, too, but the technology became refined and those who used it best came out on top. And so we should see the same with blogs and podcasting.

Seen strictly as a technology, it’s another tool. And, to quote Coursey, “… the tools give way to human intellect.” Companies who are smart will see this as another tool in the box, not a bet-all scenario.

Posted by staff at 01:50 PM
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June 23, 2005

Betting on the future of Google Ads

By David Binkowski

With all of the buzz in Detroit about tonight's Game 7 of the NBA Finals, I've found myself turning to more and more blogs to read post-game comments and pre-game predictions. Of course I've found these blogs using Technorati's tag search, which is based on tagging posts with general content labels (e.g. "Sports").

I've managed several Google ads campaigns and couldn't help but notice that the Google content ads being loaded in the sidebar are completely unrelated to what the posts were really about. Yes, the topic was sports-related, but one blog in particular was making a Las Vegas-style pick on the game and the Google ads that came up read "Buy Spurs Game 7 Tickets."

I'd be willing to wager that these ads aren't getting a single click because the Google script that scans the content isn't taking the context of the post into account. So what's the answer? Google tags. We've seen the integration of Craig's List real estate classifieds with Google Maps, so why not Technorati tags with Google ads? The Google search looks for related tags (such as "sports" or "gambling") and comes back with the appropriate content -- AND context-specific ads.

My prediction is that readers of the prediction blogs would be more likely to click an ad for "Bet Tonight's Pistons/Spurs Game 7" than "Buy Game 7 tickets." And that creates a winning situation for the user, the blogger and the advertiser.

Go Pistons!

Posted by staff at 02:28 PM
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Two blogs walk into a bar …

Today's Wall Street Journal has a piece on how marketers are looking at blogs for brand insights. One example: U.S. Cellular's agency noticed that teen bloggers were concerned that incoming calls were using up precious minutes, so the company switched to free "call me" minutes.

Just like companies should be monitoring message boards and forums, they should be reading blogs, too. With the mass-linking in the blogosphere, what one blog says can and is usually picked up and spread by many others.

Tom Guarriello of the TrueTalk blog posts about a comment he received about Target's return policy.

And Jeff Jarvis of Buzz Machine is really cheesed about Dell's customer service. Blogs are linking to him (like this one) and others.

And the oft-quoted blog non-monitoring, the Kryptonite bike lock incident, continues to buzz around like the Energizer bunny.

Steve Rubel of CooperKatz says analyzing blogs is your PR agency's duty. Yes, it is. We've been doing it for years.

So one blog says to the other … are you listening?

Posted by at 09:23 AM
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June 22, 2005

Measuring Word of Mouth

By David Binkowski

I will be participating in the AD:Tech panel "Word of Mouth Marketing: Create a WOM Campaign in 5 Easy Steps" on July 12th in Chicago. The list of speakers for the full conference is impressive. AD:Tech even has its own blog.

On the following day, July 13th, WOMMA is putting on a measuring Word of Mouth conference. We have a $50 discount code for the WOMMA conference for our associates/friends/etc.: hassisawesome.

Posted by staff at 09:55 AM
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June 20, 2005

Rethinking the wikitorial

This just in: the wikitorial, a DIY editorial attempted last week by the Los Angeles Times, had a very short life, as it was immediately hijacked by trolls. Now, who could have seen that coming? Some interesting takes from other blogs:

• Back Seat Drivers, a news commentary blog from Ireland, had details on the actual offenses: "But, along with the expected participants on the Times wiki site were some unexpected activities. First, one user managed to change the headline on several pages to read "Fuck USA," Kinsley said. Editors managed to remove the offensive headline, which went up at about 2 p.m. EDT, but lost some other input from readers at the same time.

  "We had to sort of take it all down for a while and some stuff was lost," Kinsley said. "We don't know who it was, but he has been locked out."

• Teleread says the LA Times shouldn’t give up yet, and sees a possible conspiracy: Newspapers need to engage readers with interactivity, and that’s what wikis and related forums can do. If the trolls are a problem, the answer is old-fashioned human editing. No everyone will like the results, but in newspapering, what else is new? If those people really do give up on wikis prematurely, then we really do need to ask a question raised by a commenter in Ernie Miller’s blog. Did the Times undertake the experiment to discredit wikis? Or wait. I have another angle. Did wiki fans set out to sabotage the Times because they disliked the notion of the MSM making money off the wiki approach?


• Ernie Miller's blog examined the first 24 hours of the wikitorial, attached to an editorial about the war in Iraq.


• In Dan Gillmor’s blog about the persistence of trolls, Glenn F commented: “You should see the horror show over at SF Gate where people trying to post comments about the young copy editor who has a very poor prognosis for a rare form of cancer are battling trolls: at least one person is posting over and over, "so die already" and similarly unpleasant, unconstructive remarks."

Posted by Laurie Mayers at 01:40 PM
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How to get your name in the paper

CNet has an article with the top 10 ways to get your name in the paper. These tips are also good for blogging.

Rarely claim to be first.
Don't make up words.
Leak like crazy.

Writer Michael Kanellos also tells people not to call him and sound too familiar, using only one name. "This is not Middle Earth, where a first name and a tribal association--I am Mandor, son of Blanc + Otis--will suffice for identification purposes".

A bonus for PR: he says you can contact him repeatedly with different pitches. "Reporters have about the same attention span as a house cat. Most of us have difficulty remembering what we did two days ago."

To add to the list: Don't put your name as a contact if you're not available. When I was a reporter, I can't tell you how many times I've seen a press release, called the person listed on it only to get an out of office voicemail or better yet, vacation voicemail.

And while we're on the subject of pet peeves, here's my biggest: if you have a corporate Web site, put your contact information on it! A simple phone number and address is all I'm asking for. What happens when your email bounces back or the contact form isn't working? A phone number. Amazing how many times it's overlooked.

(Via Media Orchard)

Posted by at 10:06 AM
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June 15, 2005

Wikijournalism

Here’s an idea whose time has come –- or maybe not: The Los Angeles Times, under new editor Michael Kinsley, plans to introduce "wikitorials" to its Op-Ed sections, where readers will be able to rewrite LA Times editorials.

This is a pretty incredible idea. How many times have you found yourself yelling at your newspaper’s editorial page? Now you can rewrite the columns that tick you off. Change the political endorsements, switch the paper’s positions on global warming and school vouchers.

Reaction, however, has been mixed:

Tech Dirt wrote: While you have to think it's nice that a newspaper recognizes what a wiki is, you have to wonder if the folks at the LA Times recognize that this isn't actually what a wiki is useful for. Wikis work in collaborative environments for brainstorming in building up an idea or a concept -- not in taking a fully formed opinion piece and then letting everyone mess around with it.

Ross Mayfield said: Generally, wikis can work best when something is slightly unfinished, when room for contribution is left clear. Finished text leads people to drop in links or short comments. Quite different from wikitechture that involves people in the process of production and encourages development of shared practices.

Citizen Paine (great name) was likewise skeptical but added: I'd rather see a news site experimenting than doing nothing. Even if this effort fails, the LA Times will have learned some tricks that it can use in its next experiment.

Chris Anderson wrote in The Long Tail: It remains to be seen if this will actually work, bringing life to a dull page in a declining medium. But if anyone can pull it off, it's Kinsley, the founding editor of Slate and a refreshingly independent thinker. I suspect I'll never see that page in its paper form again, but it would be great to see more of the paid pundits of this world duking it out online.

But why not extend the wiki beyond the editorial page? Here’s how it could work. In The New York Times story reporting on Kinsley’s new ventures, for example, an LA Times writer throws a gratuitous punch at General Motors.

"Mike's coming in and selling a new model," [editorial writer Jacob] Heilbrunn said. "He's an innovative free market guy who's basically saying, 'You may have won all these prizes but you're the General Motors of journalism, trying to sell outdated gas-guzzlers while everyone else is moving on to hybrids. Let's slash the workforce, get creative, and start outsourcing.'

If the news story were wiki-enabled, any GM employee, stockholder, or paid blogger could substitute "Volkwagen" for General Motors. Just a little collaboration among friends.

Posted by Laurie Mayers at 11:02 PM
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June 14, 2005

Blogging news roundup

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has released a Legal Guide for Bloggers, tons of links and explanations.

The New York Times and New York Daily News have started columns about blogging.

Dan Mitchell at the Times takes Mark Cuban to task for being all about himself and his money.

Dawn Eden of the News tells a blog story about a scantily clad Build-A-Bear mentioned on another blog that got the attention of the Build-A-Bear Workshop Inc. CEO.

Corporateblogging.info analyzes various corporate blogging policies.

Sun's Jonathan Schwartz has posted a safe harbor statement with his blog post. The shape of things to come?

Disclaimer I'm required to include the following disclaimer and safe harbor provisions (which do, in fact, exceed the blog in length) as a part of this communication. I was going to be frustrated at the requirement, until it occurred to me we'd just set a bit of corporate communications history - blogs are now an official communications vehicle at Sun. We should tell the SEC to update the regs.

Bruce Marshall disagrees with a recent Robert Scoble presentation on his blog, A PR Guru's Musings. He says blogging is not the end of advertising as we know it. Some key points:

My very strong belief is that any business that is not blogging very soon will be making a huge mistake, but it's not going to change your world. It's another tool that communications professionals must understand and adopt.

So let's inject a bit of reality. Blogs are simply another communications channel. Stop evangelizing, stop dismissing and let's start using.

Posted by at 09:43 AM
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June 13, 2005

Thou shalt read these 10 tips

Steve Rubel, bright light of PR blogging insight that he is, has distilled many of the tips many of us give to prospective business bloggers into a concise Ten Commandments of Participatory PR.

Listen to the people!

Blogging is not a fad!

Don't fake it!

They're definitely worth a read/steal.

Posted by Jud Branam at 12:29 PM
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June 07, 2005

Pixels by the barrel

General Motors’ FastLane blog leads a weekend AP story about corporate blogs:

When General Motors Corp. wanted to stop speculation this spring that it might eliminate its Pontiac and Buick brands, Vice Chairman Bob Lutz took his case directly to dealers and customers who were up in arms about the possibility. He wrote about it on the company's blog.

That post, which generated 100 comments on the site, points to one of the most compelling reasons for corporations to start their own blogs – to tell their own stories. The old advice about never getting in a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel is still sound, but corporate blogs offer an alternative to owning your own printing press.

GM has used the FastLane blog several times as a bully pulpit. (Disclaimer: MS&L BlogWorks helps GM manage the FastLane blog.) These have included:

• Responding to car reviews it considered inaccurate and unfair in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.


• Defending its decision to cancel advertising in the LA Times, and


• Trumpeting its high marks in JD Power and Strategic Vision quality surveys.

Without a blog, a corporation arguing that a news story is unfair is left with these usual PR options, listed in order of desperation: (1) to put out a press release and hope news outlets use it without too much commentary, (2) to complain to a news publication’s editor and hope he’ll run a correction and/or speak to a reporter, (3) to complain to a competitive publication and hope they’ll write something snarky about the first publication.

It’s much more appealing to tell it the way you want to tell it. An added benefit of a true blog is that it also provides an instant reality check on how your message is going over.

Posted by Laurie Mayers at 01:36 PM
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Seeking bloggers who picnic: product review opportunity

By David Binkowski

Want to check out a new product for free?

Pactiv, the maker of the new Hefty Serve 'n Store interlocking plates & bowls (and a Hass MS&L client), is looking for a few good bloggers to try out this new product.

The plates and bowls are free far cooler than your average disposable (every plate's a bowl! every bowl's a plate!) and all we ask in return is that you post a review of the product on your blog. Interested? Drop me a comment or email David.Binkowski@hassmsl.com. Note: We have a limited number to give away so speak up soon.

Is this revolutionary? Nah, evolutionary at best. CooperKatz & Co. is working with Vespa to find bloggers who will talk about their scooters (but alas, no free Vespas). And Pennsylvania's state tourism office has six bloggers documenting their travels throughout the state. (via Strategic Public Relations)

Posted by staff at 12:58 PM
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June 02, 2005

Blogs as a Recruiting Tool

By David Binkowski

We've talked about CEOs. We've talked about the Pope. And we've talked about politicians. In what probably won't be the last discussion on who should and shouldn't blog, I want to ask: Should employees blog? Short answer? Yes.

Sure, there have been a lot of stories about people getting fired over blogging. Yahoo's guide to employee blogging was recently released, letting their employees know that "obscene" comments, proprietary information and the like are not acceptable. Blogger offers a similar resource. Rather than focus on the negative, I'd like to think how a blog can HELP employees.

We know that HR people Google potential employees. One story that I heard was that a person applying for a job at a company included a link to their web site to demonstrate that they had web programming and design experience. They didn't mention that it was a soft-core nude modeling web site, but I digress (by the way, this person got the job -- and I'm sure a few strange looks during the interview).

So what could a HR person learn from a potential employee's blog? I'd say it shows insight into their personality, the way they think, and their creativity. It demonstrates their ability to express themselves (the anti-group thinker! Oh, no!) and even gives insight into their writing skills. It shows that, as crude as some blog publishing systems are, they have a basic understanding of technology.

You can also learn whether or not an employee is the type of person that has the potential to suggest new ideas -- an outside perspective, if you will. Heck, some companies pay top dollar for that! Companies that stay ahead do so because of innovation. So let me ask you this -- wouldn't you prefer to have your company filled with those type of people?

Posted by staff at 02:35 PM
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June 01, 2005

Blogging for Dollars

The Wall Street Journal's Career Journal has an article about blogging becoming a paid, corporate job. Stonyfield Farm has one full-time blogger and plans to add one or two more in the next couple of years.

The Washington Post profiles Jeff Jarvis, who left Advance.net for a life of bloggery with various ventures.

Another pro blogger, Tris Hussey, writes for several blogs and is chief blogging officer for Qumana Software. He penned the hilarious post in Yoda-speak on why you need to blog for business.

I'm a blogworker. My title is Blog/Web Project Manager. I write for BlogWorks, and also work on the General Motors blogs. (No, I don't ghostwrite or anything like that, but I do help review the thousands of comments that come in.)

Writing for a blog is nothing like writing for a newspaper or even a web site. For years, I was trained not to insert myself into my writing. Now, it's anti-bloggy if I don't.

Will more blogging jobs show up in your local classified section? You bet. It's no fad. From stay-at-home-moms to PR firms to corporations, everyone has something to say. And a blog is the easiest and quickest way to say it.

Posted by at 09:42 AM
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