We took a quick look at corporate, trade association, and non-profit websites. Seems like less than 10% have set up an RSS feed for their news releases. Here’s an example. Here’s another. Notice the and icons.

RSS is the increasingly standard way content get passed around the web — among blogs, websites, and news aggregators. And anyone can subscribe to such feeds for automatic updates of favorite sites, blogs, podcasts, etc.  It’s a contemporary version of an email alert, yet it appears in your browser (and can be turned into email).

So what’s the big deal? If you want to increase the distribution and circulation of your news releases among your journalists, target customers and audiences, and those who move and shake your market or arena, you need to offer RSS feeds of your news releases. For most sites, this is easy to do.

So PR folks and communications managers, tell your IT department or web consultants to turn on the RSS feed feature!

Found the “Results of the first European Survey on Weblogs in Public Relations and Communication Management” by Philip Young, Ansgar Zerfass and Swaran Sandhu (Jan 2006). You can dowload it here. (It’s the link under “Results.”) Not sure whether the 500 or so respondents being self-selected makes the survey scientifically representative, but the ‘findings’ are rather interesting.

Good news: Most know about blogs; 68% either read, add comments or write their own blog. Those who don’t have a blog, some 42% plan to have one within the year. Nearly one-third don’t want to create one. Reasons? No clear idea what to do with one, can’t come up with enough blog content, worry about comments and feedback, and don’t have the time or budget. (I know, it’s work to blog.)
But here’s the best slide:

So what does this say? Says that European bloggers want an easy and cheap way to be hip (early adopters) and popular. (I guess if it were Americans, it’d be guys looking for a date). They also want to be able to connect directly with their audiences. Like politicians? The real business reasons for blogging; not that important.
Curious to do a similar survey in the States — may be very similar, maybe not.

Adrants has a breakdown of the Web Marketing Association’s (WMA) Internet Standards Assessment Report, which examines which industries have the most/least effective websites. The study found that gaming, music, sports and automotive sites are the best while public relations, directory/search engine and radio sites are the worst. You can download a copy of the report from the WMA website.

A close look at the report reveals that the definitions of the various industries covered are a bit fuzzy. As an example, the PR category doesn’t consist exclusively of PR firm websites (which was my initial assumption), but instead broadly of any website that has a PR focus. In addition, search engines are defined pretty liberally - Tower Records and www.cancer.com were included. It makes it difficult to make some sort of big statement about the report’s results.

However, web developers should explore the report for the listings of exceptional websites in each industry. You’ll find some gems. The winner for best search engine website in 2004 and 2005 was www.scirus.com, a scientific information search engine that allows visitors to save and export search results and guides users deftly towards more refined keyword combinations. Volkswagen was ranked the best automotive website in 2005 and its got everything you can imagine. The website had better be great if its going to help VW overcome those baffling television commercials they are currently running.

First saw this on Micro Persuasion.

I have been meaning to write a post on Stowe Boyd’s Conversation Index for awhile, but for whatever reason didn’t get around to it. Then late last week I read that a media monitoring firm had started using it as a metric to track the amount of conversation a blog entry generates, and now I feel compelled to comment. As background, here’s Stowe Boyd’s description of the Conversation Index that started it all:

“While working at Corante, I had the opportunity to peer at the stats for all sorts of blogs that we had going. And one thing that became really obvious is that sucessful blogs — ones that were currently viable and vibrant, and those that were on a growth trajectory from their start — shared a common characteristic: The ratio between posts and comments+trackbacks (posts/comments+trackbacks) was less than one. Meaning that there was more conversation — as indicated by the number of comments and track backs offered by readers — than posting articles. I will call this the Converation Index, just to put a handle on it.”

I think its fantastic if you want to use the Conversation Index as an internal metric of your own success at generating conversation on your blog. Watch how it changes over time. Compare the ratio of different posts to each other. Go for it.

However, the Conservation Index is not valuable as a universal measure for comparing blogs (and blog posts) to each other. Why? Generally speaking, because measuring the conversation generated by a blog post is a lot more complicated than that. Specifically, because there isn’t a univeral method for dealing with trackbacks and comments. You end up comparing apples to watermelons:

(1) Not all blogs accept comments. And some don’t take trackbacks. Technorati’s most popular blog, Boing Boing, doesn’t allow comments or trackbacks in the traditional sense. Other prominent blogs that don’t take comments include Instapundit (#16), the official Google blog (#11), Andrew Sullivan (#72) and Michelle Malkin (#12). And those are just from memory. How do you accurately show the conversation generated by these influential sites using the Conversation Index?

(2) Some blogs moderate comments and others require registration to comment. I know Micro Persuasion (#69) moderates. I’m sure other popular (and influential) blogs do as well. I’ve also abandoned the idea of leaving comments many times when I was asked to register (Personal Democracy and Doc Searls jump to mind). These tactics employed by bloggers to prevent spam/bad language/thread hijacking lead to less conversation. These kinds of sites will have artificially low ratings.

(3) Different categories of blogs attract different levels of participation. Some blogs ask open ended questions that invite a lot of discussion. Others don’t. Personal blogs often attract more comments than more professionally oriented sites, as Rohit Bhargova of Ogilvy has pointed out. In these cases, the level of conversation (particularly the number of comments) says more about the kind of blog it is than its influence.

There is more I could write. Are comments and trackbacks really of the same value (I place more value on trackbacks)? Aren’t links to an article more important than trackbacks (lots of bloggers don’t use trackbacks)? How do you account for comment and trackback spam? How do you deal with sites that have massive open threads that attract comments about what people had for breakfast?

There are too many holes for this to be used as a universal metric in blog monitoring. At its best, it provides an antecdotal measurement of the amount of conversation generated. At its worst, it could lead a client to a false conclusion about the true impact of a post or blog.

Utlimately, I think measuring the conversation generated by a blog is more complicated than adding a few numbers together. I think Tom Foremski over at Silicon Valley Watcher got it right in a recent post:

“Finding the right metrics to measure a blog’s value as an influencer will never be as simple as measuring numbers of links, comments, trackbacks, Alexa rank, Technorati rank, etc. Because you have to understand the context of each blog and how it fits into its online communities. And you can only do that by being involved in those communities, online and offline.”

Disclosure: The Bivings Group has its own media monitoring product, ImpactWatch. We don’t use the Conversation Index.

Since ImpactWatch is a product we develop, it must come as no surprise that many of us here at The Bivings Group are quite fixated with analyzing and predicting media trends. For those of you that think along the same lines, here’s an interesting website I came across today.

Alexadex allows anyone to participate in guessing which websites are likely to increase or decrease their “reach per million” in Alexa. It “rewards” people that anticipate these trends successfully by allowing people, using fake money, to buy and sell symbolic shares in these websites in a similar way to stock trading. The Alexa index going up would be similar to the price of a share going up. One Alexa “reach per million” point is akin to one fake dollar.

This kind of site basically begs the question “is there a pattern that can help predict website traffic increase or decrease?” The answer, at least on the surface, appears to be yes. There are many members of Alexadex that consistently predict large increases or decreases in website traffic. These people may be on to something. If we were to isolate the data offered by people that are successful in consistently anticipating these trends, we are essentially highlighting websites whose traffic is likely to increase or decrease.

Is this a potential boon for PR and marketing professionals, allowing them to focus their efforts on lesser-known sites that are likely to become much better known, or abandon efforts on other sites before they wither out?

Technorati Tags: Site Traffic Media Trends PR Journalism Web

When I first read about Wal-Mart’s blogger relations campaign in the NYT, I immediately assumed that the goal of the campaign was to improve Wal-Mart’s overall corporate image. Change the perception of Wal-Mart in the blogosphere and ultimately win the general public’s hearts and minds. That assumption led me to think the whole campaign just seemed off. Wal-Mart should have their own blog (or blogs), and perhaps launch an internal evangelist program. Engage in a conversation with their customers. A Wal-Mart version of Microsoft’s Channel 9. That would be an interesting program and I believe it is something worth pursuing.

But that’s not what Wal-Mart was up to. In terms of the online component, this is a public affairs campaign, not a PR effort. There’s a difference. The goal was to mobilize allies around issues Wal-Mart cares about, not to generally improve public perception.

• Visit the site they have built around this effort, Wal-Mart Facts. This site is issue oriented and not aimed at the general public. It is for journalists, policy makers, investors and, well, anyone really engaged in Wal-Mart and its issues.
• The blogger relations effort is being run out of Edelman’s DC office and is headed by conservative bloggers with political backgrounds. Its leader, Mike Krempasky, was the man behind RatherGate and is one of the folks behind RedState. These are political/public affairs pros, not PR folks.
• The blogger outreach focused on political bloggers. And if you read the correspondence between an Edelman executive and one of the bloggers, it is an ideological pitch that is being made. The language being spoken is one that people who have only done PR work may not be used to or comfortable with. This effort has more in common with a political campaign than an effort to pitch bloggers on products.

I’ve personally done more online public affairs work than PR work, and I judged the campaign based on the wrong criteria. I think others are making the same mistake - judging a public affairs campaign as if it were a PR effort. It may seem obvious, but I think its an important distinction to make.

Technorati Tags: Wal-Mart Edelman PR Krempasky Journalism

One of the bloggers Wal-Mart was wooing as part of their blogger outreach program has posted a PDF of his email correspendence with Wal-Mart’s public relations firm, Edelman. Its an interesting read and gives you an unfiltered picture of what Wal-Mart was up to.

Very interesting New York Times article that provides insight into Wal-Mart’s use of blogs and bloggers to combat its negative public image. The gist of the story is that Wal-Mart’s PR firm of record, Edelman, has been sending out talking points to pro Wal-Mart bloggers via email. A few of the bloggers then posted excerpts of the emails without disclosing where they came from. Sounds like a non-story really - its not news that PR folks send bloggers information. You just have to wonder how successful Wal-Mart will be in manufacturing something (a grassroots blog movement in support of Wal-Mart) that really should happen organically and with Wal-Mart employees leading the way.

Update: Here is a link to the story that doesn’t require registration. 

Update 2: Here is a link to a PDF of correspence between an Edelman executive and a blogger he is wooing. 

Technorati Tags: Wal-mart PR Edelman Blog Communication

In an effort to boost relevance and public interest, the Chinese government is setting up blogs for members of its figurehead Parliament and companion advisory board. Seems to me that ghost written and heavily censored blogs are going to make the government look more out of touch, not less.

Technorati Tags: China Politics Blogs Government Asia

Courtesy of http://www.gapingvoid.com/

Last summer, prominent blogger Jeff Jarvis used his site to complain about his buggy Dell computer and Dell’s subsequent unwillingness to live up to the terms of their warranty.  Jarvis’ posts led others to come forward with their own problems with Dell, and ultimately a sort of grassroots movement against Dell formed.  The situation hurt Dell’s brand.  (Read a great case study on the situation).

Well, the author of the popular Gaping Void blog, Hugh MacLeod, recently bought a new Tablet PC and was having serious problems getting the Wifi to work. He got frustrated and began to point the finger at Microsoft.  A Microsoft employee in Texas quickly got in touch with MacLeod and helped him fix the problem.  MacLeod is now a happy camper.  Crisis averted.

This is the way the world works now.  Companies that don’t recognize that are at a huge disadvantage.

Technorati Tags: Gaping Void Microsoft Tablet PCS Dell

I’ve been around PR a bit. Saw how to use focus groups and surveys to come up with messages, and ways to frame/talk about them.  Learned how direct mail could drive results depending on presentation, and how advertising, especially political, could set an agenda.  I marvelled at the intuition of the best PR pros.  And they used to lament that there was no real science behind all of this, but there is.  It’s relatively new, it’s called behavioral economics, a hybrid of psychology and economics.  Here’s a story about it in The Harvard Magazine, called “The Marketplace of Perceptions,” by Craig Lambert.

Money quotes:

Good — “. . . that the ways in which alternatives are framed—not simply their relative value—heavily influence the decisions people make.”

Better — “The difference in impact between two broad policies may not be as great as differences in how each policy is framed—its deadlines, implementation, and the design of its physical appearance.”

Bingo — “Economists and others who engage in policy debates like to wrangle about big issues on the macroscopic level. The nitty-gritty details of execution—what do the forms look like? what is in the brochures? how is it communicated?—are left to the support staff. ‘But that work is central,’ Mullainathan explains. ‘There should be as much intellectual energy devoted to these design choices as to the choice of a policy in the first place. Behavioral economics can help us design these choices in sensible ways.’

I cherry picked some quotes, the article is a great read overall.  So PR and communications follks, you’ve been vindicated.  What you do does really matter and Harvard can prove it.

Here’s a funny call to arms, by Tom Foremski at SiliconValleyWatcher, to kill the press release as we know it. However, press releases wont be extinct any time soon, especially with all the websites and RSS feeds willing to post and send them verbatim. So expect to see even more bad releases. But there’s good news: Tom’s got some great suggestions, and there’s a maybe the first diggings of graveyard for the worst releases at this site.

Update: We have added a page to our Wiki that serves as a running list of PR firms that blog.  If you aren't listed, please feel free to edit the Wiki and add yourself.  Original post follows.

In a story I posted a few days ago, I found that 4 of the 18 largest PR firms had official corporate blogs (Burson Marstellar, Edelman, Hill & Knowlton and The MWW Group). Constantin Basturea wrote in with some corrections/additions to my list. Here goes:

• The Horn Group has a blog that I flat out missed. My bad. That's 5 of 18.
• Manning Selvage and Lee doesn't have a blog, but Hass MS&L does. I'll leave it to you whether that should count.
• Ketchum's Personalized Media practice has a blog that they update fairly regularly. However, Ketchum doesn't even link to this blog from the Personalized Media practice area section of their coporate site, and its the last entry on the second page of Google, well behind the faux Ketchum Ideas blog. I'll let you decide whether to count it.

Here are some other non-official PR blogs Constantin pointed out:

• Tony Obregon from Cohn & Wolfe is blogging.
• There are at least two senior execs from Ogilvy who are blogging: John Bell and Rohit Bhargava.
• Robert J. Ricci from Weber Shandwick’s Web Relations Group is blogging and the Weber Shandwick technology PR team in New York is blogging.
• A group of people working at Porter Novelli Washington is blogging.
• John Brodeur (Chairman of Brodeur Worldwide) has a blog.

Constantin also recommends this as a good listing of PR blogs. Please feel free to post any additional blogs I may have missed.

Update: We have added a page to our Wiki that serves as a running list of PR firms that blog.  If you aren't listed, please feel free to edit the Wiki and add yourself.  Original post follows.

For years I've watched some of the best, brightest and biggest PR firms in the world get the web wrong. Traditionally, most large PR firms have viewed the web as a designers medium, housing their interactive capability in their creative department. The design folks would come in and build a website, and then move on to their next project like they would if they were designing a postcard. The result is website as online brochure. Slick and shallow. The other result is PR firms full of account managers that don't know much about the Internet. Due to the blog craze, I think a light has gone off for many large PR firms and, at the very least, they are talking about the web differently. But given what I've observed over the years, I'm skeptical. As Mark Rose writes in this piece, "Big PR agencies are like super tankers; they are set on their course and they take a super effort to navigate a new direction." After reading this post from last summer, I decided to do a quick survey of the 20 largest PR firms (adjusted down to 18 since two of the firms on the list I have were acquired) and see if they had blogs on their own corporate sites. Here's what I found:

• Four of the 18 firms have fully functioning blogs that have been updated in the last two months (Burson Marstellar, Edelman, Hill & Knowlton and The MWW Group).
• Twelve of the 18 firms didn't have a blog that I could locate through a Google search or off of their main corporate sites (APCO, Brodeur, Cohn & Wolf, Fleishman-Hillard, Golin Harris, Huntsworth, Ketchum, Manning Selvage & Lee, Ogilvy, Porter Novelli, Ruder Finn and Weber Shandwick).*
• Two firms put up blogs but have neglected them (Schwartz Communcations and Waggenner Edstrom).

I'm not one of those people who believes that every company needs a blog. Not having a blog is preferable to having a bad blog. For some companies, it just doesn't make sense. I also know that many of these firms that don't have corporate blogs have individual employees that maintain personal blogs. But I do think the decision to blog makes a powerful statement about where your priorities are and where you think the world is going. And I think its obvious that the ability to implement a successful blogging strategy for yourself is a pretty good indication you can implement one for a client. *Note that Ketchum has this site which looks like a blog but is really a marketing piece and Ogilvy has this list of blogs. Update: I found that the Horn Group has a blog as well. I updated the post here with more data. Technorati Tags: PR Edelman Burson Fleishman Hill & Knowlton