Archive for the BlogStraightTalk Category
 It’s time for the completely shameless monthly exercise in subjective measures of greatness…the Most Influential Blogger post. Winners get complimentary Blogs of Fire T-Shirts.
This list changes quite a bit from month-to-month, and ranking by cumulative score allows for a better picture of my most influential bloggers.Year-to-date rankings for the blogger of the year are accumulated from month to month. As this is the first ranking of the year, we are beginning with a clean slate.
1) Web Strategy by Jeremiah - I think Jeremiah ended up in my del.icio.us book marks five or six times last month. Just when you think there can’t possibly be anything more this guy has to offer, bang, another shot over the fence. Recessions, employees vs. companies, interviews. Keep it going, Jeremiah.
2) Laura Ries - She blogs infrequently, but when she does it’s a sure-fire hit. This month she had analysis of the Oprah endorsement, a discussion about Starbucks closing and Microhoo analysis.
3) Neville Hobson - I like Neville quite a bit and have been following him for some time. His posts can informative, educational, and are often backed by great stats. A great staple for anyone’s reader.
4) Chris Brogan - Note repeat from last month: Chris is still on, always thinking about his community. It’s hard not to get something from Chris Brogan’s blog. Like Neville, Chris is a must read staple for anyone’s blog.
5) Todd Defren - A strong month from, Mr. Defren. Todd frequently appears on the listing, through this is his first appearance of 2008. Strong posts this month included blogger relations for small cos., a location-based future, wire services and criticism of ooVoo day.
January Winners: Shel Israel, Wkinomics (team), B.L. Ochman, Ignite Social Media (Tobin and McNeil), Chris Brogan
The 2008 rankings to date:
- Shel Israel - 5 points
- Jeremiah Owyang - 5 points
- Laura Ries - 4 points
- Wikinomics - 4 points
- Chris Brogan - 3 points
- Neville Hobson - 3 points
- B.L. Ochman - 3 points
- Ignite Social Media - 2 points
- Todd Defren - 1 point
Last month’s winners have not received their shirts yet due to a short staffed Livingston Communications. All apologies, they’re coming!
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We gather here for a discussion about the socialization of business communications. But it’s more than just that.
Really, corporations have a problem. They don’t listen to their marketplaces, control and push messages, and act in relative vacuums. As a result, the public doesn’t trust companies.
Many social media and marketing minds have envisioned how the Internet can make business better. In some cases, it already has.
Imagine a world where business can profit, but not just for the sake of their investors. Their profits result from bettering their communities by enabling buyers through great services and products that meet real needs. Companies engage with their stakeholders, and actually listen to them, evolving their offering to serve market demands.
To get there, companies really need to open up and interact with their constituents. They need to embrace community concepts. Social media can serve as a change agent to get there. When embraced in full, social media creates relational collaboration. Companies stop acting as forceful entities and start becoming service organizations.
Most organizations won’t embrace this kind of change. At least not yet. It’s too much of a stretch. But market leaders, competitive risk, and eventually poor financial performance can be great motivators.
Those that do make the change have an easier time of business. Indeed, they have a new pair of glasses, and view the world with much clearer perception. And it’s a better world for it.
A pipe dream? Maybe, but one worth working towards. One company, one communication at a time.
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It’s time for the completely shameless monthly exercise in subjective measures of greatness…the Most Influential Blogger post. Winners get complimentary Blogs of Fire T-Shirts.
This list changes quite a bit from month-to-month, and ranking by cumulative score allows for a better picture of my most influential bloggers.Year-to-date rankings for the blogger of the year are accumulated from month to month. As this is the first ranking of the year, we are beginning with a clean slate.
1) Shel Israel - Consciousness in a time when every marketer on earth is trying to figure out social media to make money. Shel offers a voice of reason and experience when we most need it. He has been my favorite read for some time.
2) Wkinomics (team) - Continuous and intelligent coverage about the ongoing social media revolution. This is the best blog about social media from an executive management trend perspective. If Read/Write Web is too geeky for you, check out Wikinomics.
3) B.L. Ochman - At a time when PR bloggers seem redundant, B.L. offers a breath of fresh air. I wouldn’t call her a PR blogger though, especially after her recent run-ins with PR Week. Anyway, lots of great insights into social media with B.L.
4) Ignite Social Media (Tobin and McNeil) - A great team blog with outstanding insights into marketing, backed with stats and figures. I always look forward to a new piece from this North Carolina-based blog team.
5) Chris Brogan - Ahh, grasshopper. Always on, always thinking about his community. It’s hard not to get something from Chris Brogan’s blog. Chris is a regular on the monthly most influential list.
And the 2008 rankings begin!
- Shel Israel - 5 points
- Wikinomics - 4 points
- B.L. Ochman - 3 points
- Ignite Social Media - 2 points
- Chris Brogan - 1 point
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As this a blog that primarily caters to businesses and individuals adopting social media, half of our readership will be out today in memory of Dr. Martin Luther King. And of course, social media sites around the country and the globe feature the late peace warrior, from idle reflection to full posts dedicated to King. Here are some examples:
 It’s important to reflect on King’s legacy. Perhaps no greater example can be seen then when race became an issue in the Democratic primary early last week. Both Obama and Clinton came together very quickly to stamp it out, and successfully made race a non-issue for the Nevada primary. Though the tension still exists, it’s not tolerated publicly.
Even more importantly, both Hillary Clinton’s and Barack Obama’s substantive runs for the presidency demonstrate to me that this country has come a long way. We have changed and ready to elect either a woman or an African American as president. Yet, we cannot rest on our laurels against racism and prejudice. And perhaps that is what today’s holiday is about: Recognizing progress, yet understanding there’s more to do.
What are your thoughts on MLK day?
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 Once again, my completely shameless monthly exercise in subjective measures of greatness…the Most Influential Blogger post. Winners get complimentary Blogs of Fire T-Shirts. This time, because it’s December we get to crown my personal, most influential blogger for 2007.
But first, December’s most influential bloggers. This list changes quite a bit from month-to-month, and ranking by cumulative score allows for a better picture of my most influential bloggers. Interesting to note that no PR bloggers made this month’s ranking. An unintentional, but interesting oversight. Year-to-date rankings — and the blogger of the year — are below.
December’s Top Five are…..
1) Chris Brogan’s 100 posts on social media marketing (or not) have been outstanding thus far. Further, they demonstrate Chris’s continued commitment to serving his community. Anyone interested in social media can stand to learn a ton from Chris.
2) Valeria Maltoni: Once again, Valeria has delivered a fantastic month of social media commentary. Her consistent brilliance is hard to match (even if she does use the term “3.0″).
3) Mack Collier has a great blog that I’ve been introduced to through the Conversation Age crowd. Good commentary ranges from outside issues to his own thoughts. A must for your Reader!
4) Toby Bloomberg has done a pretty nice job of late, and as always serves as a great blogger role model. It’s always good to have someone experienced, savvy and brilliant in your network. And to admire great blogging, too!
5) Jeremiah Owyang has been brilliant of late, and seems to be on another tear. As always the web strategist transcends marketing disciplines to deliver valuable information to everyone.
2007 Blogger of the Year
 For the Blogger of the Year ranking: Five points for first place down to one for fifth place, and cumulating the score. Our cumulative weighted 2007 ranking makes VALERIA MALTONI my most influential blogger of the year (image credit: CC Chapman)!
Way to go, Valeria!!! Thanks for the great posts. What does this mean? Nothing, other than I highly, highly recommend Valeria’s blog, and next time we do a blogger meet-up, I’m buying!
Here’s the year end scores:
Valeria Maltoni - 13
Chris Brogan - 9
Toby Bloomberg -8
Jeremiah Owyang - 8
Kami Huyse - 7
Brian Oberkirch - 7
Shel Israel - 6
Todd Defren - 5
Chris Heuer - 5
Rich Becker - 4
Mack Collier - 3
Anthony Williams - 3
Kevin Dugan - 3
Shel Holtz - 3
Brian Solis - 3
Ike Pigott -2
Eric Eggertson - 1
Seth Godin - 1
Quick recap:
November’s top five in order were PR Squared’s Todd Defren, Valeria Maltoni, Shel Israel, Brian Oberkirch, as well as Kami Huyse and Brian Solis (tied).
October’s top five in order were Kami Huyse, Chris Brogan, Anthony Williams, Brian Solis, and Chris Heuer.
September’s top five in order were Jeremiah Owyang, Toby Bloomberg, Shel Holtz, Ike Pigott, and Seth Godin.
August’s were Valeria Maltoni, Rich Becker, Shel Israel, Toby Bloomberg, and Eric Eggertson.
July’s were Brian Oberkirch, Chris Heuer, Kevin Dugan, Jeremiah Owyang, and Kami Huyse.
In January, we’ll start anew!
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My completely shameless monthly exercise in subjective measures of greatness…the Most Influential Blogger post. Winners get complimentary Blogs of Fire T-Shirts.
This list changes quite a bit from month-to-month, ranking by cumulative score allows for a better picture of my most influential bloggers. And this also creates a nice year end post. Year-to date rankings are at the bottom.
November’s Top Five are…..
1) PR Squared’s Todd Defren has demonstrated some serious leadership in a time when his firm came under fire from Marshall Kirkpatrick and Chris Andersen. His ability to not only address the problems, but create solutions, his continued commitment to ethical communications, and his willingness to tackle tough issues continue to impress me. Here’s to you, Todd. Trial by fire suits you well.
2) Valeria Maltoni has had a great month, too. She just looks at social media from a very pragmatic standpoint, that of an internal comms director. She also really gets into things. Look at how she has plunged into twitter, and what she gets out of it. Always a good read.
3) Shel Israel. Yup, back on the list. Just because he is who he is. I listen to him, enjoy his candor, our conversations, and his undying enthusiasm for social media. I often think of becoming a recovering PR person, too. Shel walks the talk, too, and you can never underestimate that! Consider all the work he’s doing to highlight global social media adoption.
4) Brian Oberkirch has had a particularly prescient month. Most importantly, Brian reminds me not to take myself too seriously. His writing style is mirthful and candid. His points are savvy and right on without a lot of self absorbed pontification.
5 tie) Kami Huyse, the queen of measurement, continues to beat the drum, and perhaps really focus this industry on some quality issues. As usual, a hat tip for Kami.
5 tie) Brian Solis: Great posts on blogger relations this month, plus PR roundtable contributions were excellent. We actually talk about and use Brian’s stuff in our practice so that in its own right is a pretty strong endorsement. I’ve had a lot of fun with our Now Is Gone podcasts, too.
Quick recap:
October’s top five in order were Kami Huyse, Chris Brogan, Anthony Williams, Brian Solis, and Chris Heuer.
September’s top five in order were Jeremiah Owyang, Toby Bloomberg, Shel Holtz, Ike Pigott, and Seth Godin.
August’s were Valeria Maltoni, Rich Becker, Shel Israel, Toby Bloomberg, and Eric Eggertson.
July’s were Brian Oberkirch, Chris Heuer, Kevin Dugan, Jeremiah Owyang, and Kami Huyse.
Yes, continued link love for the rest of the year for all noted parties.
Blogger of the Year
For the Blogger of the Year ranking: Five points for first place down to one for fifth place, and cumulating the score. Our weighted 2007 ranking so far…
- Valeria Maltoni - 9
- Kami Huyse - 7
- Brian Oberkirch - 7
- Jeremiah Owyang - 7
- Toby Bloomberg -6
- Shel Israel - 6
- Todd Defren - 5
- Chris Heuer - 5
- Rich Becker - 4
- Chris Brogan - 4
- Anthony Williams - 3
- Kevin Dugan - 3
- Shel Holtz - 3
- Brian Solis - 3
- Ike Pigott -2
- Eric Eggertson - 1
- Seth Godin - 1
Right now Valeria Maltoni is shaping up to be my most influent blogger of the year! It’s a tight race, though. Anyone from Chris Heuer and Todd Defren on up is in the running. It just takes one first place finish!!!
6 Comments »
Our completely shameless monthly exercise in subjective measures of greatness…the Most Influential Blogger post. Winners get complimentary Blogs of Fire T-Shirts.
This list changes quite a bit from month-to-month, ranking by cumulative score allows for a better picture of my most influential bloggers. And this also creates a nice year end post. Year-to date rankings are at the bottom.
OK: October. A hard month, because no one really hit that grand slam (defined as getting a job at Forrester, etc.). But lots of great content across the board. In order…
1) Kami Huyse has done two notable things. First of all, she is the reason why case studies are now housed on Now Is Gone. Secondly, she has really hammered home the industry’s need for measurement. And people are listening. Oh yeah, the rest of her posts have been pretty good, too.
2) Chris Brogan gets a hat tip this month. First of all, he is the most motivational social media blogger our there. And lately I’ve been in “the Dip” so reading Chris has been a bit of a rallying moment. But he also gets it. Consider these recent posts.
3) Wikinomics blogger Anthony Williams has been outstanding this month. Lots of great quantifiable examples of social media and web 2.0 techs working, and working well. A great addition to any reader. And oh yes, if you really want to understand the sociological impact of 2.0 on companies’ bottom lines, read the book.
4) Brian Solis gets a hat-tip, too. Hard core PR blogging this month from Solis has included excellent pieces on the Future of Social Media Releases, the Future of the Press Release (I & II), Conversational Marketing versus Market Conversations and more. A vintage PR 2.0 month or so.
5) Chris Heuer makes you think. Fantastic keynote at BlogOrlando challenged me, plus continued chats about books, memes, message control and blogging was capped by just an outstanding series of conversations this week in San Diego. I look forward to creating the Von Helsing facebook app with Chris! If we ever get enough time to do it.
Ones to watch: Todd Defren, Christina Kerley, Valeria Maltoni (perennial), Jeremiah Owyang (perennial)
Quick recap:
September’s top five in order were Jeremiah Owyang, Toby Bloomberg, Shel Holtz, Ike Pigott, and Seth Godin.
August’s were Valeria Maltoni, Rich Becker, Shel Israel, Toby Bloomberg, and Eric Eggertson.
July’s were Brian Oberkirch, Chris Heuer, Kevin Dugan, Jeremiah Owyang and Kami Huyse. Yes, continued link love for the rest of the year for all noted parties.
Blogger of the Year
For the Blogger of the Year ranking: Five points for first place down to one for fifth place, and cumulating the score. Our weighted 2007 ranking so far…
- Jeremiah Owyang - 7
- Toby Bloomberg -6
- Kami Huyse - 6
- Valeria Maltoni - 5
- Brian Oberkirch - 5
- Chris Heuer -5
- Rich Becker - 4
- Chris Brogan - 4
- Anthony Williams - 3
- Kevin Dugan - 3
- Shel Holtz - 3
- Shel Israel - 3
- Brian Solis - 2
- Ike Pigott -2
- Eric Eggertson - 1
- Seth Godin - 1
It’s a tight race. You have to think anyone from Ike up is in the running. It just takes one first place finish!!!
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It’s amazing how uncommon common sense is these days.
Blogger relations should just be about working with people. But most of the time, traditional PR is either missing the point of it in general, or worse, applying the same faceless outreach all in the hopes of beefing up the coverage sections in their reports.
Like the press release, the PR industry has been stuck in a rut for so long that the industry is content with the existing factory-line of building news, writing reports, schmoozing, and simply broadcasting messages to anyone with an inbox.
PR is experiencing some of the greatest innovations and advancements courtesy of Social Media. But instead of embracing a new and improved commitment for creating and sharing news and information with people, we’re using the same old marketing ethics and tactics to spam our recipients.
Blogger relations is so much more than a code of ethics for outreach. At the very minimum, media, analyst, and blogger relations is about people and cultivating meaningful, mutually beneficial, and productive relationships.
It all starts with respect for bloggers, the company you represent, and the people you ultimately want to reach.
What do you stand for? Seriously, how many PR people actually take the time to really “get” what it is they represent and why it matters to the rest of us. And, more importantly, how will it help the people you’re trying to reach.
Next step, listen and read.
What is it about what you represent that will compel someone to share it with their community. Remember, a blogger has a responsibility to their readers in order to maintain credibility, along with the trust of the community. In today’s attention economy, they must actively compete for their precious time, so you can bet that any good blogger is going to be selective.
And, for all of you over-achievers out there, look beyond the a-list. I can’t tell you how many times I hear PR pros purport that blogger relations is all about the “cream of the crop.”
Trust me when I say that the a-list only helps with the credibility of a brand, but does very little for generating new customers or enhancing brand loyalty. The true influencers are the peers of your customers.
The best communications strategies will envelop not only authorities in new and traditional media, but also those voices in the Magic Middle of the attention curve. They help carry information and discussions among your customers directly in a true peer-to-peer approach.
The Magic Middle is defined as the bloggers who have from 20-1000 other people linking to them. It is this group that enables PR people to reach The Long Tail, and it’s effects on the bottom line are measurable.
Yes, of course there’s more to blogger relations than what’s included here. No matter how far out we look and how much time we spend inventing new strategies for reaching bloggers, we usually lose sight of common sense and the basic building blocks for building and nurturing relationships.
Sending a shout out to Depeche Mode with this one, “People are People.”
More here and here.
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 This week the Buzz Bin achieved a top 20,000 ranking in Technorati, a measurement based on how blogs link to you. The top 20k ranking has been a goal since March, when the blog changed its name from Diary of an Ad Man to the Buzz Bin and was ranked at 300K+. But what does the actual ranking mean?
Before we examine impact, several people have asked me how we did it. My thank you post tomorrow on the Buzz Bin will lay-out the exact steps taken to achieve this benchmark.
But more importantly for businesses, what does blog rank on Technorati or the Ad Age 150 mean in the grand scheme of things?
1) Not much: My old Managing Editor Andrea Knotts Bona at the now defunct CommunicationsNow oft reminded me you are only as good as your last story. It’s easy to rest on your laurels, but that is a sure fire way to lose daily traffic and RSS subs. A blog is only as good as its most recent contributions to its readership.
2) Links-to do can, but do not necessarily, denote a good blog. Links to are often acknowledgement of good content. They can also result from negative blog posts (not in this case, but you get the point). So if a blog is linked to because it is negative or controversial, its measurement is not an indicator of valuable content. Sift through the links over a period of time to ensure they are positive.
3) RSS subs and daily traffic are much better measurements of blog performance. All of these supposed rankings vary on benchmarks (for example links to the blog) that may or may not reflect actual performance. Performance is determined by readers (who, how many, are they the right people). Google Analytics (a conservative measurement) and FeedBurner are your friends.
4) Links-to do mean something from a search engine optimization (SEO) standpoint. The more blogs that link to you the better your search performance. For example, consider s.technorati. To qualify as most influential you need approximately 160-170 blogs linking to you. To me, this is the most value our Technorati “ranking” offers.
5) Perception is great. For example, our Technorati rank enables me to tell prospects in Washington that we have the highest ranked independent PR blog in DC (One local Ogilvy blog is higher). So it equals good PR.
6) Perception is great, but not real. For example, The Buzz Bin has a terrible Ad Age rank of 230+. That’s because the metrics used don’t reflect actual readership, rather Bloglines subs.
There are many, great active Bloglines readers, there are also many dormant ones (I have a dormant account) due to a competitive RSS marketplace. The Buzz Bin became popular after Bloglines lost readership, so Bloglines only represents 4-6 percent of our readership on a day-to-day basis. The Ad Age 150 perception is so bad, and is so distant from what I believe our actual marketplace ranking would be that I’ve asked Ad Age’s Charles Moran to de-list the Buzz Bin.
7) Something to benchmark. In the end, marketing folks are statistic junkies. We love measurement… And we love our rankings. So from a gamesmanship standpoint, why not?
What’s next for the Buzz Bin? We hope to break the top twenty on the Friendly Ghost’s PR blog rankings in the next four to six months. Wish us luck!
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Every week, Copywrite Inc.’s Rich Becker and I discuss a blogging best practice on BlogStraightTalk, a Bumpzee community. This week we discussed Public Relations Society of America’s (PRSA) a new social-media enabled web site: www.prsa.org.
PRSA’s social media effort turns the font page of the site into a blog, allowing readers to comment (albeit minus the ability to tage blog sites). This social media enabling of traditional news outlets and Web sites is a relatively newer trend, most notably with the Gannett based USA Today’s incredible Web site revision earlier this year.
Kevin Dugan reviewed the social media aspects of many of these news vehicles on Strategic Public Relations. prblog.typepad.com/strategic_public_relation/2007/…
Chris Heuer also reviewed USA Today’s social media efforts to date:
www.chrisheuer.com/2007/08/16/why-usa-today-is-not…
On to the reviews!
Take One: Livingston
- Many PR practitioners don’t monitor blogs or social media still. Worse, they treat bloggers like journalists, and attempt to manipulate blog readers. This move really does enable PRSA to start a great discourse with its membership and encourage the adoption of social media-oriented public relations. I applaud the move.
- As to the actual site, it leaves me non-plussed.
- All in all, for a first time effort within a larger organization that’s used to controlling the message, I applaud the effort. I give it a B+.
Take Two: Becker
- While I applaud the effort, the execution seems haphazard. Enough so that I wonder if speed to market convinced PRSA to make the move too quickly or perhaps without a plan. The posts seem a bit hit or miss, without linking to the source in some cases.
- Social media is becoming an ever-increasing important piece of the communication puzzle but that does not dismiss the responsibility of practitioners to remember that the message is more important than the medium.
- While I can join Geoff in giving PRSA a B+ for effort, I only see a D+ in terms of execution. Just a few tips on the front end: the front page has too much noise, the PRSA news roll moves too fast, and readers need more than a headline to coax them into a story.
Rich ended the session with a particularly prescient point, “PRSA has an opportunity to be enabled to educate public relations professionals about social media. So the bigger question is … do they know enough to do it? Considering I was introduced to their new blog by a senior member who felt disenfranchised by it, only time will tell.”
Most organizations are not as well known as PRSA. They have the luxury of being able to “experiment” by participating in the community for a little while. That in turn allows them to find their social media voice, the role they play in the community. In essence, experiences create the ability to better navigate the social media realm.
Unfortunately for PRSA, it is a well known organization so the halo effect for trying social media will last for only a short period. Hopefully, they will monitor results and quickly adapt.
BlogStraightTalk publishes every Monday. Join us.
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It’s time for the completely shameless monthly exercise in subjective measures of greatness…the Most Influential Blogger post. Winners get complimentary Blogs of Fire T-Shirts.
