So, it’s sad, but kind’a comical too to see how quickly the everyday use of the web for communication is eroding everyone’s grammar and syntax (cough, Twitter). What’s truly tragic, however, is the frigg’n pandemic spread of companies promising machine based linguistic and sentiment analysis services, all of them knowing oh too well that the web has damn-near its own dialect now, be it acronyms (FTW!), abbreviations (RT) or any number of adhoc classifications (#[hashtag]), and maybe more importantly, a growing appetite for unspoken gestures of expression and opinion (be it thumbs, stars, likes, or otherwise), yet, for whatever reason, these companies continue to over-promise mountains of insight and perspective into “how your customers think and feel,” based only on what a bot and an algorithm spits back!? I don’t know, it’s just, uh, flawed. Update: check out Microsyntax.org, this entire organization is diving into the ‘new’ unconventions of communication on the web.
Updates from April, 2009
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Machine-Based Sentiment Analysis is Flawed
mike manuel
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2 Tactical Tips for Corporate Video
mike manuel
Okay, so as a quick follow up to my previous post on video distribution, here’s two tactical tips for companies.
Tip #1: Who has the best embeddable player? I think Viddler does (full disclosure, they’re a Voce partner). I say this less for Viddler’s technical merits (even tho I consider them quite good), and more for the simple fact that the Viddler player can be branded with your corporate logo AND embedded with a custom link back to a site of your choosing (example). And this folks is frigg’n *gold* if you want to squeeze more value (over time) out of all the people discovering and spreading your videos on the web.
Tip #2: How do you maximize the reach (and quantify the metrics) of *all* your video services? Try using TubeMogul. It’s a great service that allows you to centrally upload and then syndicate your videos to all the video sharing sites (e.g., YouTube, Blip.tv, MetaCafe, etc.) The central management and control of your videos from TubeMogul allows you to track all sorts of performance metrics, not only for your videos, but for the video networks you’re using too.
So, net-net, Viddler + ‘other’ video sharing sites + TubeMogul = a pretty powerful combination if you’re serious about milking your online videos for all they’re worth.
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The Rise of Agency Apps
mike manuel
So earlier this week a reporter asks what I considered to be “some interesting agency trends?” Aside from the chronic spread of social media expert-itis, oh and some Grade-A Twitter shilling, the one I felt the strongest about was what I’ll just call, for now, the “rise of agency apps.” Net-net, I think we’re starting to see some early signs of agencies developing all sorts of custom-built web apps — each app designed specifically for the way it does business and packaged up as a value-added service/perk for clients and prospects. Converseon’s been doing this for a while now (see “Conversation Miner“), Edelman got in the game too (see “StoryCrafter“), WaggEd as well (see “Twendz“), and yeah, Voce’s keeping in step (see “Bridge“). I think we’ll see a lot more firms roll their own apps this year, probably suites of apps too. Watch this…
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Dear Social Media Monitoring Companies…
mike manuel
Here’s the problem, guys: when it comes to large-scale *online response* programs, too many of you are trying to shoehorn people into systems that don’t gel with the variety of workflows that are naturally found when, you know, silly humans get involved. Some people will dig your bookmarklet, others your dashboard, and still some your email alerts and feeds, but none of them will like *all* of these things, and I can guarantee you all of them will use more than one — so yeah, that makes your job very, very difficult. And your products, well, either loved or hated.
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The Web Divides: PR vs. Advertising
mike manuel
Alright, I guess it’s inevitable that amidst this economic shake up, we would return to the age-old argument of Public Relations vs Advertising, and debating where your business dollars are better spent, and you know, whatever, that’s fine, it’s not without good reason.
In fact, I’ll admit, this was a hot topic at last week’s SMC meetup, and again at this week’s PRSA International conference, but here’s the thing: if we (the PR industry) are going to collectively make the business case for a shift in corporate spending, we need better leverage, and man, if there was *one thing* we should be leveraging to our advantage in this argument, you’d think it’d be all the benefits and potential of the social web for business, right?
Sadly, the PR industry, for being inextricably tangled with the web, continues to oddly struggle with how best to use it for communications — and therefor, articulate its value and return in this larger argument we’re all trying to make.
And yeah, to be fair, the ad industry is really struggling with this too, so in a big way, the challenge is just seeing which industry can get past its own tired modes and models of business and acclimate the fastest to new attention, usage habits and trending patterns on the web.
For what it’s worth, I think the PR industry, for better or worse, can actually win this race by doing two things:
First, by each of us assuming personal responsibility for where the industry sits today and how we’ll each move it forward. Seriously, to win this bigger argument, we have to become smarter practitioners through professional education, personal learning (through adoption?) and, well, by having a curiosity and a willingness to experiment and try on different approaches to communications on the web; and
Second, by realizing that once separate or ancillary business disciplines are now a much, much bigger part of the communications charter. Things like web development, search engine marketing, media production, data analytics, etc., have all become increasingly valuable for communications purposes, and because of that, PR departments (and PR businesses) can no longer afford to draw dotted lines into these disciplines. Something I’ll be blogging about separately, soon-ish.
Net-net, I think a lot of this argument for PR comes down to how diligent and creative we as professionals and as an industry can be about rethinking and reshaping a role that’s been otherwise comfortable, and largely misunderstood the past few decades. If we make the stretch, then right on, we get to reset the terms for determining PR’s business value, hopefully its perception too.
And if we don’t, well, I guess we remain neatly (and reluctantly) relegated to a few bullets in the next business plan. Either way, it rests on us.
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When Does Social Media Become Too Risky for Corporate Use?
mike manuel
So you could argue that the Achilles heel of most social media programs is that we’re all, in some way, increasingly relying on a variety of third party services and tools to augment our efforts online — and with that reliance comes an assumed risk that these services will remain accessible and dependable all the time, especially when we need them most.
But what if they aren’t? What if they break? What if the ‘new fantastic tool’ turns into more of a liability than an asset?
At what point do certain social media services become, well, too risky for corporate use?
Take Twitter for example, a service I personally dig and use regularly, and one that’s already been examined and adopted as a comms tool inside some very large organizations. Twitter has become, sadly, the poster child for inconsistency, poor performance and frustration among many, at least lately. I don’t doubt that Twitter’s technical woes will get figured out, but it’s all coming at a cost to others, and if you’re Dell, Southwest, Red Cross, and the like, you have to wonder:
Do the advantages (and potential) of Twitter still outweigh the risks and headaches that come with relying on it right now?
Yeah, it’s easy to pick on Twitter here, but frankly, this bigger point of social media “risk assessment” is not unique to Twitter at all and can — and should — be applied to any third party service that sits in a broader social media program.
The truth is, almost every service out there has its shortcomings and fail points. YouTube constantly hiccups with its flash conversions. Del.icio.us has a wonderful way of stalling out with multiple API calls. Feedburner freaks out with certain media enclosures. WordPress WYSIWG, well, any WYSIWG really, just never quite works, and the list goes on….
It doesn’t mean these problems outweigh the potential and return of these services, but it’s safe to say, as companies rely more heavily and frequently on these tools — and micro collections of ’subscribers,’ ‘followers’ and ‘friends’ develop around them — there’s an inherent responsibility as both a consultant and as a company to commit to the tools that will last, and to at least consider some sort of exit plan if they don’t.
Ultimately, it’s still about picking the right tool for the job, a choice that just increasingly requires all of us to first ask:
Will this tool work all the time, most of the time or just, you know, some of the time?
The answer we’re each content with is our choice to bear and perhaps over time, a reflection on our abilities to discern between what’s popular verse what’s functional, what’s an okay free tool verse what’s a great paid service, etc., etc., you get the gist, good luck.
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Tech Know-How, A New Media Must-Have
mike manuel
Geesh, you know, I consider myself relatively deft when it comes to the technical production and implementation of certain new media tools, but this week was *such* a kick in the balls. About mid-week I was neck deep on three projects and I just caught myself looking at my workflow and the to-do stack and thinking “there’s no f*cking way the normal flak is sweating codecs for a screencast, or ESRB-based comment filters or unresolved DNS server issues on a client’s blog domain.”
Don’t get me wrong, I dig this stuff, I’m just reminded that social media work, particularly media production, still requires a level of technical know-how that stretches the average bear’s brain, or at very least the average guerrilla’s….
Technorati Tags: pr, socialmedia, technology
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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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The Care & Feeding of Tech Media
mike manuel
Via Valleywag, a great collection of tips here for working with popular tech media and influencers. The tips come from Sam Whitemore’s Media Survey, a kick ass service and resource for tech communicators. Get it.
Technorati Tags: influencers, media, pr, silicon valley, technology
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Enough, We Get It…
mike manuel
I don’t know which’s worse, a blog with every frigg’n subscribe button in the universe, or a blog with the Helen Keller 128×128 universal feed icon!?
Enough already, we get it….
Technorati Tags: feed+icons, user+abuse, RSS
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Good PR, It Ain’t About the Tools
mike manuel
It’s funny sometimes to watch the awkward two-step between the technology and public relations industries. Look no further than the frenzy that currently surrounds PR and social media, and you’ll see what I mean.
We’re all trying to navigate industry change, as best we can, based on what limited experience and reason tells us, and as a result, it’s easy to rely on technology to help assuage uncertainty and doubt and to ultimately let it lead the way, and I think that’s becoming increasingly problematic.
I don’t want to imply that technology doesn’t have a role in PR, it does and it’s a big one, but right now, I think way too many people are caught up with the promises of new tools and becoming “tool smiths,” and in some way, I can’t help but think that this is distracting and diluting the basic value of PR — good communication.
Case in point, tools like Technorati are great at helping you discover online conversations, and a degree of familiarity and acuity with a service like this is helpful, no doubt, but at the end of the day, it’s a search engine. It’s a means to an end in PR. Or put another way:
Technorati will let you know your foot’s on fire, but it won’t tell you how to put it out. This is where technology stops and PR starts.
I think hunting and finding information is a problem that technology *will* fix, maybe with some help, but analyzing and understanding people’s motivations, and then engaging in a meaningful conversation with them is a unique and inherent value of good PR — and we shouldn’t loose focus on that.Technorati Tags: PR, Technology, Technorati
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PodTech Debuts PodSummit
mike manuel
The good folks at PodTech continue to grow their InfoTalk Network. Today they announced a new weekly podcast series called PodSummit which will profile technology leaders and entrepreneurs.
Without question, as new media business models continue to evolve, like PodTech, they’re opening up all sorts of interesting new opportunities for marketers and advertisers, and I’ll add communicators too, because *content* is what will make or break these new channels.
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New School PR & Thinking Like a Media NetworkTechnorati Tags: John Furrier, Marketing, Podcasts, PodSummit, PodTech