MarCom Professional

I’m a fan of Web 3.0. Perhaps obsessed is a more accurate description.

Web 1.0 is the Web of documents. Web 2.0 is the social and user content Web. Web 3.0 is the point at which the Web itself understands that content and social interaction. Some call it the semantic Web, and some call it the Web of data, but regardless of naming conventions, it’s going to mess up a hell of a lot of business models, and create some fascinating new business and public-benefit opportunities. And it’ll transform reputation management too.

If you think ‘atoms of influence’ trickle far and wide courtesy of human expressions and understanding with social media acting as loyal conduit, just wait until machines understand these contributions too. More...

Brian Solis won’t mind me pointing out that he likes to invent memorable turns of phrase. It’s a common trait amongst communicators working on any cutting edge because sometimes existing phraseology doesn’t quite do justice to the point being made. More...

Friday Roundup 23rd July 2010

Ever considered Twitter in terms of it being a "Human Seismograph"?

Brian Solis won't mind me pointing out that he likes to invent memorable turns of phrase. It's a common trait amongst communicators working on any cutting edge because sometimes existing phraseology doesn't quite do justice to the point being made. So here we are, discussing human seismography.

And two posts this week portray the seismograpic needle waggling wildly.

Firstly, Brian's post "Oil Spill Report: BP and White House Sentiment Spills onto Twitter" reviews the sentiment towards BP as expressed on Twitter. More...

With a dozen titles to his name, including Tribes, Meatball Sundae, perhaps most famously Permission Marketing, and most recently Linchpin, interviewing Seth was always going to be both entertaining and insightful.

Interview with Seth Godin

Seth packs in several super observations in just ten short minutes.

Describing PR, historically, as “a human form of spam” is always going to grab your attention, but Seth doesn’t dwell on the negatives for long. More...

Last night the CIPR Social Summer series hosted a session on all things TweetDeck. If you haven’t tried TweetDeck, try it now. It’s free!

According to Twitstat.com today, after simply tweeting at twitter.com, Tweetdeck is the most popular Twitter client globally. More...

Well personally I’m excited not paralysed, and I keep a beady eye on great information sources such as SEOmoz and Search Engine Watch, and I’m posting today to highlight a couple of posts I’ve just found.

Rand Fishkin, SEOmoz’s CEO, has written a super perspective that should be read by everyone interested in the ebb and flow of the SEO world, particularly as it relates to activity one might consider in the PR domain. More...

I interviewed Brian Solis for the CIPR’s website recently. Brian is one of the most prominent thought leaders and published authors in new media. A digital analyst, sociologist and futurist, Solis helps practitioners get to grips with the effects of emerging media on marketing, communications and publishing.

His perspectives are well worth a listen:

Brian Solis interview 20th June 2010

One quote I’d pick out is this:

PR used to be right there at the top, but we slipped into publicity and media relations and spin, and forgot the opportunity to steer and shape perception, just such an opportunity afforded by participation and engagement in social media.

Friday Roundup 9th July 2010

Is social media good?

This is possibly one of the most interesting questions I've been asked in my consultants' capacity in recent times. Of course almost all media is now social, or has a social component. Take the BBC's Question Time? Sure, its live audience participation is social, but for the rest of us it's simply broadcast TV. But things have only got more interesting for the programme's fans as the Twitter backchannel has allowed us all to join the debate.

But is social media "good"?

I hadn't seen Stephen Waddington's post this week about the police effort to capture a killer-at-large in Northumberland when I was asked this question, but his description of "digital rubber necking" makes one pause for thought. More...

Facebook will die.

When it comes to asserting my regard for Facebook's prospects I feel a bit like the guys over at housepricecrash.co.uk. This website was set up by friends with a mutual interest in the UK property market in 2003 and, as the name of the site subtly betrays, they predicted a bit of a tumble in house prices. And of course they were proved right. Eventually!

But social networks aren't subject to the same dynamics as the 'irrational exuberance' that fueled the house price climb to an all-time high. More...

Friday Roundup 2nd July 2010

Continuous professional development. Bloody important. Guess that's why the CIPR just moved its whole system online. Brilliant.

I mention it because I need some. Professional development that is. Look at the state of this Friday Roundup: it lists 16 great posts for goodness sake! Far too many! But they're all so interesting (if I can say that about a list that includes one of my own).

I need a course in editing to get the list down to, say, 10. I could propose some personalisation technology to the MarCom Professional team so you only get posts you're really interested in. More...