So over on the Voce Nation blog, I just posted the news that we’re sponsoring WordCamp SF (it’s taking place later this month, get on it!) As far as I know, we’re one of the few PR firms to get behind a WordCamp event in this sort of way, at very least, we’re one of the first to get behind the SF event. Regardless, it makes a *ton* of sense for our business right now, both in terms of how we’ve been using WordPress and related tech with clients like eBay, PlayStation, Yahoo!, and others, but maybe more importantly, with publishing and networking platforms like WordPress MU and BuddyPress now gaining momentum, the ways we can bend and stretch these platforms for communication and marketing programs feels at times damn near limitless. Anyway, we have some very cool WordPress-related projects in the works, some of which the team may be sharing at WordCamp, others we’ll be talking about later this summer. Hope to see you there later this month.
Updates from April, 2009
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Voce’s Sponsoring WordCamp SF
mike manuel
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Next Third Thursday’s “Groundswell”
mike manuel
So, you may have noticed there’s this little lime green book bubbling up everywhere called “Groundswell,” and my hunch is that if you read this blog, you’re probably already reading this book too. At very least, you’re familiar with the book’s co-authors, Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, both are long-time industry analysts for Forrester Research, and generally speaking, are pretty smart folks when it comes to analyzing the adoption and application of social media in business.
It’s with this in mind that SNCR and the organizers of Third Thursday - Silicon Valley have invited Charlene to come in and speak at our next meetup about what the Groundswell is, how it’s impacting businesses today, and perhaps highlight some of the recent research and case studies she and Josh share in their book.
If you’re in the midst of formulating your own social media strategy, this is one of those must-attend talks.
Our discussion with Charlene is set for next Thursday, May 15 at 6:30 p.m. in downtown Palo Alto. Details are on the Third Thursday Meetup page. We’ve just about reached our capacity max for this event, so please RSVP soon if you’d like to join us; oh, and bring your Groundswell book.
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PlayStation Shares “Lessons Learned” Blogging
mike manuel
The case study chat with the new media team behind Sony PlayStation’s blog went well yesterday afternoon at the NewComm Forum, we actually covered a lot of ground - everything from content development and technical design to community management tactics and measurement. By the end of our session, the PlayStation guys had shared 15 “lessons learned” over the last year. I won’t re-hash all those here, I think some of them were fairly obvious and well documented, but there were a few lesser known/lesser discussed tips that shook out that are worth mentioning, here are three:
Sorry, Your Clever Blog Name Doesn’t Matter
Well, it matters less than you think, especially for big brands, big companies like PlayStation. Fact of the matter is that most people are typing “playstation blog” or a simple variation thereof in the search engines to find the blog. A lot of referral sites are also attributing/linking to the blog with the same simple terms, so, you know, if you’re working on a blog right now, don’t kill yourself over-thinking the name. There’s a good chance people won’t remember it or use it anyway…
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Sharing the PlayStation Story at NewComm Forum
mike manuel
Tomorrow afternoon I’ll be heading north to participate in another New Communications Forum, one of only a very few must-attend events for me each year. At this year’s conference, I’ll be co-presenting a case study on corporate blogging with clients from Sony PlayStation. The PlayStation guys have a very interesting and colorful story to tell and this will be the first time it has really been shared, at least in its entirety, so I’m looking forward to the discussion. We’ll be speaking on Thursday at 11AM, hope to see you then…
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Heading to the UK…
admin
I know, I know, posts here have been infrequent, but it’s for good reasons, some of which have been spilling out over on the Voce Nation, others are still to come. Unfortunately, this won’t change soon, I’m off to the UK tomorrow (with @Hyku) to meet with members of ION, an international network of consultants we work with, to exchange ideas, learnings and some best practices in the area of new media and communications.
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Podtech Talks “Pressroom of the Future”
mike manuel
Another great Third Thursday meetup last night. Our guest speaker was Podtech’s John Furrier who, among other things, shared his thoughts on the recent Podtech BlogHuas at CES and discussed how projects like this are indicative of bigger possibilities for newsrooms at special events. Jeremiah Owyang captured a live stream of our talk, check it out.
Thanks to all that attended. June’s meetup will be on the topic of citizen journalism - we think. Details will be posted to the Third Thursday Meetup page shortly. BTW, if you have ideas for speakers or topics, let me know, we’ve got some great stuff on the horizon, but we’re always looking for new topics, new voices….
Technorati Tags: socialmedia, podtech, john+furrier, thirdthursday
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@ PR Online Convergence, Third Thursday
mike manuel
Man, days like today make living and working on the left coast worth the price of admission….
I spent the first half in Studio City, talking along side Sally Falkow, Phil Gomes, Brian Solis, Eric Schwartzman, and a host of other industry friends and peers at the inaugural PR Online Convergence conference. It’s always good to hear these guys color and contextual-ize new media and its impact on PR. My thanks and congrats to John Gerstner for pulling this together.
Now I’m returning north for tonight’s Third Thursday meetup where we’ll be speaking with Podtech’s John Furrier. Blog posts, photos and maybe a few podcasts to come. Good times….
Technorati Tags: brian solis, california, eric schwartzman, phil gomes, pr online convergence, sally falkow, thirdthursday
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Third Thursday Returns This Week
mike manuel
A new year of Third Thursday meetups gets underway this week. With the help of some new friends (which I’ll explain in a sec) we’ve lined up a kick butt panel of speakers to talk about the Social Media Press Release, folks like Tom Foremski, Chris Heuer and Brian Solis, certainly some of the most active contributors to this industry project so far. Joel Tesch with Business Wire has also agreed to talk, so we’ll be approaching this subject from multiple perspectives, which I think is needed….
Also, on a related note, beginning this year we’re changing things up a bit: First off, we’re moving Third Thursdays up to SF. We’ll be hosting things at Shine. This is long over due, we know, we always intended to alternate our meetups between Palo Alto and SF, it was just a challenge finding an SF venue, but we found one…which leads me to another change, an exciting one:
We’re teaming up with the Social Media Club and the Society of New Communications Research (SNCR) to co-produce Third Thursdays beginning this year (beginning this week actually). This just makes sense, for multiple reasons, not least of which is that our groups are each trying to raise awareness and understanding of social media and its practical application in various industries. With Third Thursdays, we’re focusing our energy on the use of social media in PR and marketing and this new partnership just brings a collection of resources together to make sure YOU get the most of it. It’s good stuff, I’m glad we could team up like this. We’ll talk a little more about things Thursday night.
Details are on the meetup page. Hope to see you there.
Third Thursday background
Social Media Release background
Technorati Tags: brian solis, businesswire, chris heuer, joel tesch, sncr, socialmedia, socialmediaclub, socialmediapressrelease, thirdthursday, tom foremski
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Find Me @ Macworld
mike manuel
So, a quick schedule update: I decided to forgo the madness that is CES to attend Macworld this year. I figured it’s here in my backyard, plus it has the potential to be a very memorable one. As always, it’s fun to watch the crescendo(s) of chatter leading up to the keynote….
Posts that contain Apple per day for the last 7 days.
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Third Monday Debuts
mike manuel
Awesome, it looks like the debut of Third Monday in Ottawa was a success, nearly 40 marketing and PR pros packed into a local watering hole to hear Shel Israel speak.
Congrats to Joe Thornley and his team of organizers. Next up, Third Tuesday Toronto.
Also See:
Third ThursdayTechnorati Tags: marketing, PR, thirdtuesday, socialmedia, thirdmonday, thirdthursday
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BlogOrlando Kicks Off Tomorrow
mike manuel
Josh Hallett has pulled together an impressive lineup of speakers and sessions topics for BlogOrlando — the two-day unconference kicks off tomorrow. You can soak in all the usual digital detritus via the blog, the tags, the Flickr stream, and I hope, eventually, the podcasts. I wish I could be there….Technorati Tags: marketing, PR, blogorlando, socialmedia, unconference
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Find Me @ WOMBAT, BloggerCon
mike manuel
Alright, I’ll admit it, I’m becoming increasingly apathetic when it comes to industry conferences, particularly those focused on new media.
Too often it feels like the same old A-list blowhards and tool pushers talking about, well, themselves, with just a few minutes of conversation and networking sprinkled in between things to make it bearable for the attendee.
But with that said, I’m holding out hope for two events this week: WOMMA’s WOMBAT conference, which kicks off tomorrow at the Hilton in SF, and then BloggerCon, the “unconference,” which kicks off on Friday at CNet’s offices (also in SF). I’ll be at both, looking forward to blogging from each. Email me if you’re attending one of these gigs and we’ll meetup.
Technorati Tags: Bloggercon, conference, unconference, Wombat, WOMMA
