Over the weekend, a molehill has started to become a mountain. Or, in the view of some, a mountain became an even bigger mountain.

SageCircle posted a claim that Forrester Research will restrict its analysts from having personally-branded research blogs, implying that the policy will reduce the risk of analysts building their personal brands before bolting from the firm, taking their audiences with them.

Use of social media has become second nature to many, but one look at the range of comments on the SageCircle post reflects how strongly people still feel about the dichotomy of personal/professional social media usage and the tension around a company’s ownership of a worker’s intellectual property. Cries of Big Brother, paranoia and censorship abound, tempered by other statements that it’s good business practice or simply a matter of whose servers hold the data.

Source: speedy2

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On Wednesday, January 27^th, Apple unveiled its latest creation, a tablet computer dubbed the iPad. The device is similar in functionality to the dominating iPhone, but offers the user a 10-inch screen for viewing content. While the possibilities for the iPad platform are seemingly endless with the App Store integration, the merging of print and web content might be one of the greatest. For a decade, a plethora of publishers have attempted to bridge the abyss between the paid world of print and the all-you-can-eat-for-free Internet content realm. No software company or hardware manufacturer has been able to successfully marry the two, until now. In a blog entry prior to the debut, Derek Powazek nails it:

“Tomorrow […] Apple could unleash a device that’s sexier than reading a magazine. A glossy screen like the iPhone, quality content in the iTunes store for a (hopefully) reasonable price, major publishers on board and independent publishers like me able to join in.”

From an initial look, it seems that this is precisely what Apple has done. Only time will tell if the treasured experience of print can translate to Apple’s latest and greatest.

You don’t need to subscribe to TheMediaIsDying Twitter feed to know that thousands of journalists have lost their jobs in 2009.  Publishers’ loss, however, seems to be turning into vendors’ gain.  Companies can now bypass editorial review and hire celebrity journalists to publish on their own outlets.  At the recent CES show, for example, Nvidia hired Stephen Wildstrom, formerly BusinessWeek’s Tech & You columnist, to blog from its booth.  Meanwhile, another former BusinessWeek veteran journalist Steve Hamm accepted a position at IBM.

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Anyone who’s written for an audience can attest to the humbling experience of having one’s work edited. A Ragan.com feature titled “Black and white and red all over” is an assortment of communicators’ recollections about the first time they experienced the wrath of the red pen.

The advice ranges from the stylistic, like avoiding Gonzo journalism and questionable metaphors, to the emotional - not falling in love with your own words.

That may be the toughest advice to take, as that love can be as enduring as your very first crush. (In my case, “baseball Brad.”) Painful as it may be, though, it is still vital instruction to follow in order to communicate effectively with your audience by using language that is meaningful to them rather than your ego.

This leads us to another item of interest: Americans are consuming more information overall.

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We found this recent post by Justin Siefert especially interesting and valuable.  Not a day goes by where we aren’t having to defend our use and support of Twitter as a communications channel for our clients and for us, as a matter of fact.  Despite skepticism from late Twitter bloomers…end users are using this medium as a way to get info…and so are influencers.  Thanks for the insight, Justin…hope your eyes are better.

Having started my career in journalism, I can relate to how painful it can feel for a reporter to deal with PR people. They can be overly demanding, pitch things that they know nothing about, and on top of that, pitch topics to reporters that are completely NOT relevant to the reporter’s beat – all major no-no’s in the PR industry.

However, there’s something more to working with the media than just doing your basic PR job right. As the landscape has shifted a bit, and we start to deal with entities outside traditional media (such as bloggers and influential customers) it is even MORE important to step it up in the niceness factor with these guys. Not only are you talking to a reporter who could end up writing a story about your company, you also could potentially be talking to the actual end-user who will ultimately buy your product – and well, that’s the bottom line to success.

We’ve all heard these tips before, but I think it is a good reminder to keep these things in mind as you work with reporters, influencers, bloggers, analysts, customers, etc. – these days, it could be anyone!!

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Event tweeting occurs quickly, especially if your point person is fed streams of information by multiple participants. The thoughts that people jot down may not even resemble proper tweet fodder, but don’t sweat it. When your client is tweeting about an event or conference, follow these simple tips to make sure their tweets are the center of attention and not another brief event mention.

1. Develop a tweet calendar based on the duration of the event.
   1. A minimum of two tweets per day is recommended: A tweet to start the day and a tweet to end the day
2. Craft your tweets around specific events or participants. For instance:
   1. What, if anything, is the client demoing or showcasing?
   2. Is your client speaking?
   3. Is your client exhibiting?
   4. Are there any panel sessions you want to draw attention to?
   5. Is the client introducing a new product or service?
   6. Is there anyone famous speaking at the event that will promote visibility of the event overall? For example, #MichaelJordan speaking at #VoiceCon may be a trending topic, but #AndrewEvangelista? Not so much…
3. Solicit instant updates from your people at the scene, if they aren’t able to tweet themselves. A couple of questions to get them started:
   1. What trends or hot topics are being talked about at the client’s booth and on the show floor?
   2. What’s the mood of the crowd?
   3. Anything exciting, surprising or particularly funny happen?

Hope these three tips help at your next event!

Embargoes aren’t for everyone. Last year Michael Arrington made that very clear. Here we are almost a year later, and it’s still a topic that spurs much debate. Yep, more outlets have abandoned embargoes, but it’s definitely not an extinct practice. It’s also not a one-size-fits-all approach.

Source: xuhara hamid

From a communications perspective, you’ve got to consider your client, their story and audience, and develop a strategy that makes sense for the individual situation. Does it even make sense to employ an embargo? It might not, especially for a private company. What may have been standard practice in the past may not apply anymore.

If it does make sense to embargo your client’s news, talk them through the risks involved and do your homework…know the policies of the outlets you work with, and be sure you develop and maintain trust with your contacts. You should also be prepared to move quickly in case the news is leaked.

As the dynamics of the media world continue to change, I expect there will be many more conversations about how to effectively evolve our methods of communication and news dissemination. Will we still be talking embargoes this time next year? Maybe so.

A couple of stories piqued my interest today.

First, E.B. Boyd of Bay Newser reported that McSweeney’s has unveiled a preview of its broadsheet project, the San Francisco Panorama. It’s an ambitious effort to show, in essence, that print’s death has been exaggerated, its worth underestimated, and its creative potential untapped. The list of talent that is contributing to Panorama will make your head spin. To preorder a copy, click here. (Bay Area locals, apparently there is going to be a special Bay Area-only price, so hold your horses).

Story #2 is from Peter Kafka and is in regards to Will Ferrell’s “Funny or Die” setting up a channel on YouTube. You might ask why Will & crew would do such a thing, considering they already have their own site on which to host their own content.

The answer: millions of eyeballs.

It’s all about tapping into YouTube’s ridiculously large audience. They’re taking the funny over to a place where a gigantic community already exists, which should help them garner far more exposure. “Funny or Die” will still premiere content on its standalone branded site and give its loyal followers the first peek before taking it majorly mainstream.

And on that note, I leave you with the classic “Landlord” video:

No, I can’t speak a lick of Latin, but I can convey a thought or two in 140 characters. When it comes to tweeting about their news and events, that’s all the real estate your clients will get to convey their message. To bring that size, or lack thereof, into perspective, my first two blog sentences are a total of 216 characters, well above the Twitter limit. That means you should put a lot of thought into making those 140 characters as impactful as possible.

Consider the title of this post. Let’s take the first part of the original Latin phrase and dissect it to add meaning and value: “Cogito,” which when translated into English means “I think.” I presume you care about Twitter since you’re reading this blog post, either for personal or professional gain, so I ask you to open a separate Internet tab and take a look at your personal Twitter feed. Of the dozen or so tweets on your page, what percentage shows a lack of foresight, care, or dare I say “thought”?

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