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August 23, 2005
RSS used extensively by the influencers
Shel Holtz points to a new study by Nooked that focuses on key influencers—journalists, analysts, and bloggers—showing that RSS usage in this group is a whopping 87%, with 92% aware of RSS. As Shel points out, the number may be skewed since many of those interviewed were bloggers, but the study finds that "Journalists and Analysts have moved beyond the ‘RSS for beginners’ stage and now demand information be delivered to them through a clean channel, in a specified location with specialist content.”
While some may focus on numbers that say RSS is far from wide spread adoption (Forrester found that only 2% of Americans use RSS), for PR professionals that need to reach the influencers and opinion leaders for their clients, these types of metrics are excellent ammunition when talking to clients about incorporating RSS into strategies for communicating with key audiences.
Posted by kpoor at 07:43 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 19, 2005
Hill & Knowlton provides cool self-assessment tool
HK had provided a questionaire for employees wanting to blog designed to ensure they understand and are up for the responsibility of blogging under the HK brand. They also provide some helpful guidelines for new bloggers.
Any company that has numerous employees wanting to blog could benefit from this type of self screening process. Well done HK.
Posted by kpoor at 09:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 18, 2005
FedEx misses opportunity
FedEx recently showed the exact wrong way to deal with a customer evangelist. A guy named Jose furnished his entire home with furniture he made from FedEx packaging material (amazing the strange things people set their mind to and accomplish) and started blogging about his creation (see pictures).
It would seem that a brilliant marketing idea was dropped right into FedEx's lap - one that the company would embrace and build upon. But all FedEx did was serve Jose with a cease and desist letter (pdf) stating Jose was in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Instead of capitalizing on the opportunity, FedEx created a PR dilemma as they have now become a media target.
Posted by kpoor at 02:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 11, 2005
Bruce Marshall RSS article
Bruce Marshall at A PR Guru's Musings posts an article he had published in Profile magazine discussing RSS as a PR tool. The following paragraph addresses what I consider to be the most applicable and revolutionary use or RSS as a communications tool:
Another perhaps even more powerful benefit for PR professionals is that you can use RSS to syndicate your own headlines and content. Publishing your news or press releases through an RSS feed provides another channel through which journalists and other stakeholders can access your news.
As PR professionals try to counsel clients on these new technologies, this is one of the best ways to introduce RSS to a company. Not only can journalists and stakeholders access your headlines this way the want to access your headlines this way due to the efficient nature of news readers and RSS feeds.
Posted by kpoor at 08:36 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 08, 2005
Time names favorite blogs
If you want to know which blogs Time magazine considers to be the best - click here.
Posted by kpoor at 10:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 03, 2005
Blog growth
Dave Sifry at Technorati posts on the growth of the blogosphere. Several nice graphs and statistics here. Highlights include:
* The blogosphere continues to double about every 5.5 months
* A new blog is created about every second, there are over 80,000 created daily
* About 55% of all blogs are active, and that has remained a consistent statistic for at least a year
* About 13% of all blogs are updated at least weekly
Posted by kpoor at 08:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
