§ Recent blog posts

§ HC+T Update

Subscribe to HC+T Update, Shel Holtz's monthly newsletter.

Get the RSS Feed or subscribe to the e-mail mailing list.

Social Media Resources

At my session for IABC's 2008 international conference in New York, several participants asked if I could throw together a list of resources -- online and offline -- to help them get a handle on the information I presented in my talk. This is that page. I'm wide open to suggestions for more entries. Email me with your thoughts.

Demographics | Primers | Blogs and Podcasts | Books

Social Media Demographics

ClickZ Stats

My favorite demographics resource is ClickZ, which has an entire statistics section. They cover all the breaking news, but also provide a stats toolbox that covers the basics. I've found it to be an invaluable resource.

http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=stats

Pew Internet and American Life Project

For U.S. information, the Pew Internet and American Life Project does a nice job of uncovering demographic information. Their research is released irregularly and sometimes infrequently, but the studies they do provide some real insights.

http://www.pewinternet.org

Groundswell Technographics

Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff have made the top-level findings of Forrester's technographic research available in a simple-to-use tool. If you want to spend more, you can get far more granular than this, but the information available here is useful in its own right.

http://forrester.com/Groundswell/profile_tool.html

Forrester Research

As long as we're talking about Forrester, I should point out that there's a lot of got data coming out of the company in report form. These reports can cost hundreds of dollars, but there's usually a summary that contains some useful information.

http://www.forrester.com

Marketing Vox Demographics

Marketing Vox ("the voice of online marketing") has a demographic section that features articles covering news about online demographics.

http://www.marketingvox.com/categories/demographics/

eMarketer

eMarketer, a company that conducts research on the online world, is always worth checking for interesting statistics presented in a consistent and easy-to-digest manner. The reports aren't free (or even cheap), but the summaries are available at no cost and often contain useful information.

http://www.emarketer.com

Social Media Primers

Social Media University, Global

That's SMUG, for all you acronym-happy communicators. Put together by The Mayo Clinic's social media manager, Lee Aase, SMUG is a series of online courses designed to get you up to speed on social media. Tuition is free; room and board is on you.

http://social-media-university-global.org/

Social Media Training Wiki

Canada-situated Brit Dave Fleet has started a wiki that covers the basics of social media.

http://socialtraining.wetpaint.com/

Jedi Training

SHIFT Communications Principal Todd Defren provides links to his own posts that that make up suggested reading for PR 2.0 tacitcs.

http://www.pr-squared.com/jedi.html

The New PR

Constantin Basturea started TheNewPR -- a wiki -- several years ago so communicators could share with each other resources to help them tap into new media. The site has been used for a variety of things. There are lists (executive bloggers, corporate podcasts, and the like), links to corporate blogging policies, initiatives (like the anti-astroturfing movement) and collections (such as a listing of things a company should monitor). It has become an invaluable resource.

http://www.thenewpr.com

Blogs and Podcasts

These are some of the blogs and podcasts that, by reading and listening, you can stay current on the use of social media in communications. It is by no means meant to be a comprehensive list, nor is it meant to suggest these are the "best" PR blogs and podcasts. I'll add more to the list as time allows.

Blogs

a shel of my former self, Shel Holtz's communication-focused blog
Neville Hobson's blog
PR Squared, from Todd Defren
Communication Overtones, from Kami Watson Huyse
DaveFleet.com, from Thornley-Fallis' Dave Fleet, the guy behind the Social Media Training wiki
Media Guerrilla, from Voce Communications' Mike Manuel; he doesn't post often, but it's worth reading when he does
Pro PR from Joe Thornley, CEO of Canada's Thornley Fallis
PR Works, from David Jones, head of Hill & Knowlton Canada's digital practice
Web Strategy by Jeremiah, from Forrester analyst Jeremiah Owyang; not a PR blog, but invaluable nonetheless

Podcasts

For Immediate Release, twice-weekly update from Shel Holtz, ABC, and Neville Hobson, ABC
Inside PR goes deep on public relations; David Jones and Terry Fallis and a panel of experts from Canada
Six Pixels of Separation, online marketing revelations from Montreal's Mitch Joel
On the Record Online, interviews with media experts from Eric Schwartzman
Forward, for new and upcoming PR professionals
Trafcom News, tactics from Donna Papacosta of Trafalgar Communications