Tuesday, December 26, 2006
HC+T Update: December 2006
HC+T Update: December 2006
HC+T Update
December 2006
- Shel Joins Crayon
- When Company Bloggers Aren’t Enough
- Is The Blogosphere Peaking?
- Executive Infighting Erupts Onto Intranet
- Business Podcast Directory Launches
- Broadband Users Not a Homogenous Group
- Requirements Released for Social Media Press Release
- PRWeek Releases CEO Survey
- Brand Evangelist Study Confirms What We Know
- Site of the month
- HC+T update
- Boilerplate and subscription information
As usual, this issue represents mostly material I’ve written for my blog over the past month. You can find the blog at http://blog.holtz.com. And don’t forget, you should seriously consider switching from the email subscription to the RSS feed. Just add the following URL to your RSS news reader: http://blog.holtz.com/index.php/update/rss_2.0/.
1. Shel Joins Crayon
At the end of October, Joseph Jaffe announced the launch of his new business, crayon. Jaffe—author of “Life After the 30-Second Spot,” “JaffeJuice” blogger and host of the “Across the Sound” podcast—included a list of the communicators who had joined him in his startup. I’m proud to be among those seven communicators. My official title: VP, New Marketing. You can find details at our website, http://www.crayonville.com.
The question the announcement raises, though, revolves around the future of HC+T Update. There was no November issue, but that was because my server died and it took two weeks to get it back up and running, during which the window for releasing a November issue had closed. But is there a point in issuing HC+T Update when HC+T is taking a backseat to crayon?
HC+T—that is, Holtz Communication + Technology—isn’t going away entirely. I’ll continue to operate under that name for my speaking and training engagements, and for a few assignments that fall outside the scope of crayon’s business (such as intranet audits). But most of my energy and effort will be focused on crayon.
I haven’t yet decided what to do with this newsletter, which I began producing when I started my business back in 1996. (I suspect some of you have been reading it that long!) I have noted for some time that the items in HC+T Update are now extracted from my blog, and you can get all of it and more by subscribing to the RSS feed, a process that has gotten ridiculously easy for people with Internet Explorer 7, Firefox, Safari or Opera.
But I’ll leave it up to you. If I hear from enough readers who really, really want me to keep cranking out HC+T Update, I will. So let me know by sending email to mailto:shel@holtz.com.
2. When Company Bloggers Aren’t Enough
The beating Microsoft is taking in the blogosphere and elsewhere over a patent filing leads me to wonder whether this isn’t an instance where some solid, formal communication might be in order. Leaving it to Microsoft’s employee blogging force doesn’t seem to be doing much good.
The kerfuffle erupted when the patent filings from June 2005 became public on Christmas Day when a year-and-a-half privacy window expired. Quickly, the web and blogosophere began proclaiming headlines like this one, from All Headline News: “Microsoft Reportedly Tries to Patent RSS”
A Technorati search for Microsoft, RSS, and patent turns up 2,391 posts. People are definitely buzzing about this, with most making the same assertion: Microsoft is claiming to have invented RSS and is seeking a patent they could use to extract payments from others trying to use it. Even Business 2.0 has gotten into the act with this headline: “Patently Ridiculous: Microsoft Claims It Invented RSS”
Meanwhile, self-proclaimed syndication geek Niall Kennedy has produced an in-depth analysis of the patent filings, which makes it clear that Microsoft is not claiming to have invented RSS, but rather is seeking patent protection for a couple of the ways RSS is handled within Internet Explorer 7 and Windows Vista, where RSS is called “web feeds.”
Whether the filing is justified is not the point of this post; that argument is being addressed elsewhere. My focus is on Microsoft’s apparent decision to leave communication surrounding the controversy to bloggers like Sean Lindersay, one of the Microsoft employees named in the filing and a member of the RSS team. Lindersay posted an explanation to Microsoft’s RSS Team Blog that asserts the patents “do not constitute a claim that Microsoft invented RSS;” he gives full credit to those who did create and further develop RSS.
Virtually all of the dozens of comments posted in response to Lindersay are negative, to say the least. Other posts claim the patent filings are defensive, to keep patent farms like the one that sued Blackberry from grabbing up patents and taking aim at Microsoft’s deep pockets. Again, this isn’t mollifying Microsoft’s critics.
Given the uproar over Apple’s nastygram to PodcastReady -— which led to a flurry of posts from respectable bloggers claiming Apple was trying to trademark the word “podcast” (it wasn’t) —- Microsoft should have seen this blowback coming and prepared for it. Having a communication strategy in place to address the patent filing would have been a good idea. Leaving the issue in the hands of members of the RSS team and other bloggers (no press release has been issued on the situation, for example) strikes me as a bad idea. Much of the work Microsoft has undertaken to rehabilitate its image through blogging and other social media interaction could be undone as attacks continue.
Microsoft employs several PR agencies —- Edelman and Waggoner Edstrom among them. Isn’t there a role for traditional communications in a situation like this?
3. Is the Blogosphere Peaking?
Research firm Gartner has predicted that the growth of the blogosphere will peak at about 100 million by the mid-point of 2007. Gartner rationalizes that most people who would ever “dabble” with blogs have already done so, and many of them have given up.
Steve Rubel’s report of Gartner’s assertions attracted some interesting comments disputing the claim:
“Please don’t make me go through the history of really, really bad predictions by Gartner.”
“(Gartner’s conclusion) assumes a static population of internet connected individuals. In 10 years, do you imagine there will be more people online?”
“Most of the connected population are yet to embrace the idea of participating online rather than just reading stuff. This is a major cultural change and will take a decade or two.”
Ultimately, of course, the growth of the blogosphere will level off just as the growth of anything new peaks after most people who want one get one. I agree with each of the arguments posted to Micro Persuasion, but even if Gartner is right, so what? New blogs will continue to swell the ranks as non-bloggers decide they have something to talk about and opt for a blog as their channel of choice. Somebody not blogging today may take up a new hobby or embark on a new career and suddenly have a reason to blog. Also, any number of young people entering school or the workforce will take up blogging, as well, in whatever form it exists in the years ahead.
No, the size of the blogosphere won’t continue to double every few months, but that doesn’t mean blogs are a fad on their way out. It simply means blogging has become a part of the landscape, just like telephones, televisions, and websites. The growth of all these tools peaked at some point, yet people still continue to acquire them at a healthy clip and their influence is unquestioned.
4. Executive Infighting Erupts onto Intranet
Things are bad at BP. Very, very bad.
Tony Hayward, the company’s top exploration and production exec, posted an item to the company’s intranet slamming current leadership. Labeled, “Hayward shares candid views on 2006,” the piece listed the company’s flaws. It’s most likely no coincidence that Hayward is angling to become BP’s next top dog.
According to a Financial Times piece, Hayward took direct aim at current BP honcho Lord Browne, who retires in 2008:
“We have a leadership style that probably is too directive and doesn’t listen sufficiently well. The top of the organization doesn’t listen hard enough to what the bottom of the organization is saying.”
Hayward also criticized BP management’s “do more with less” philosophy.
I’m all for candor and transparency, and Hayward is probably right about the issues he raises, but you have to wonder what kind of confidence this kind of infighting among executives inspires among employees. Intranets can be used effectively for a lot of things. Campaigning for the chief executive’s job isn’t one of them, especially when the campaigning turns negative by undermining the current leadership. (And let’s not forget that the story was leaked to FT. Maybe the first rule of Fight Intranet should be: Don’t talk about Fight Intranet.) The fact that one candidate for the top job can hijack the intranet to serve his own ends also suggests a loss of control by the company’s corporate internal communications function.
Keep in mind, this was a formal feature article published to the intranet, where communication efforts should drive business objectives. If BP (or any other company) wants to allow employees (including executives) to voice their opinions, they should consider implementing intranet blogs.
After all, Bob Malone—BP’s new head of U.S. operations—recently started a blog to address problems that have riddled the unit. Wouldn’t this be a better approach for Hayward to air his personal gripes and ambitions?
5. Business Podcast Directory Launches
Rob Walsh has a new podcast directory to add to his directory of directories. The new iBiz Radio site is focused solely on business podcasts.
The directory functions by submission, and so far the number of shows submitted is light. A dedicated “Public Relations” category features five podcasts—and I haven’t heard of any of them. I submitted For Immediate Release, but missing are shows like Inside PR, NewComm Road, On the Record Online, Edelman’sEarshot and Trafcom News.
Still, enough businesses-focused podcasts are available to make a dedicated directory useful; it’s definitely better than yet another general-interest podcast directory. It can’t hurt to list your or your company’s show here.
Press release: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/news_press_release,35965.shtml
6. Broadband Users Not a Homogenous Group
A lot of online marketing is being done based on the premise that more and more people who use the Net have made the switch to broadband/high-speed access. That’s true: broadband growth continues at a healthy clip, a 60% compound annual growth, according to Leichtman Research. But that doesn’t mean everybody using broadband fits the same profile, a mistake that marketers could easily make when lumping these folks into the same bucket (e.g., they are able to consumer lots of videos from services like YouTube.
In fact, there are five distinct types of broadband users, according to Netpop | Portraits, part of the Netpop series of studies conducted by strategic market research firm Media-Screen. Those types include the following:
- Content king —- Looking for entertainment, 76% of content kings play online games and 75% of the sites they visit are for personal reasons. They spend about 2-1/2 hours online every day.
- Social clicker —- Spanning the age demographic (younger and older), social clickers use the Net as a communication channel. Younger social clickers use IM and social networking sites while older clickers rely more on email. This is a participatory group: 78% contribute content each month. Nearly 60% of the time they spend online is devoted to communication; the rest is divided between news, information, and shopping.
- Online insider -— According to the report, these folks see the net as “a rich, personal, and cultural phenomenon. Their behaviors mirror those of early adopters, trying out a lot of online resources and contributing to the content and conversation mix. According to coverage of the report from ClickZ Stats, “Eighty-six percent contribute to Internet content or information each month, including posting to blogs, community sites, and chat rooms.”
- Fast tracker -— Fasts access to news and information is the primary reason these folks go online. They are the dominant users of map services, public transportation information, and other data.
- Everyday pro—These people are all about personal productivity and use the Net to reduce hassle in their lives and make life easier. For example, 84% of this group use the Net for online banking; 68% make purchases from online retailers.
The point, of course, is that treating the broadband audience as a single demographic is a huge mistake. As with any population, they can (and should) be recognized as individuals who are online at high-speed for different reasons, and each segment should be addressed based on what we know about them. I know this study will inform any efforts I take to communicate to audiences based, at least in part, on their high-speed connectivity.
7. Requirements Released for Social Media Press Release
Chris Heuer and the social media press release working group have released the requirements for a social media release. Published to the working group’s blog, the requirements dive deep into “the key elements of the Social Media Release that we have identified over the course of our discussion,” Heuer writes in his November 2 post:
“The Social Media Release is intended to make it easier on people to identify and share the most important pieces of information with others around the globe while adding their own valuable perspective and/or editorial. It also takes full advantage of HTML, multimedia and the network effects enabled by the Internet by using structured data via the Microformat, which ultimately increases its findability by interested parties -— which is ultimately the driving purpose of public relations and the press release specifically.”
Detailed information about a variety of elements are included, such as…
- Tags and keywords
- Embedded audio, video, and images
- Company RSS feed
- Reserved link types
Incidentally, if the topic interests you, there’s a mailing list you can join. You should also give a listen to NMRCast, a podcast featuring Chris, Tom Foremski (who authored the original post that sparked the social media release), Brian Solis, and others involved in the effort talking about the latest efforts to establish a standard.
Details: http://www.socialmediarelease.org/2006/11/02/elements-of-the-social-media-release/
NMRCast is available at http://www.forimmediaterelease.biz/index.php/weblog/C5/
8. PRWeek Releases CEO Survey
I just got word by email that PRWeek has released its annual CEO survey, this year looking less at communications and more at “the issues and information that impact corporate strategy.” The PRWeek story suggests that the factors a CEO considers when making decisions “is a combination of information and experience, advisors and gut instinct, and PR pros have a critical role to play in this mix.”
I haven’t had a chance to go over the story—and won’t for a bit, since I’m about to go deliver a talk—but the email I received from Tim McHugh at Plesser Holland (handling PR for PRWeek, I guess) points to these findings:
- The search for talent is the biggest challenge for CEOs. (No surprise here—CEO Magazine’s annual survey always has recruiting and retention as a top CEO concern.)
- 77% of CEOs feel that digital/online strategy is important to the organization’s overall plans, but only 8% of CEO’s have blogs, and only 19% say they will start their own blog in the next two years.
- 77% of CEOs rank developing current customer relationships as one of their highest priorities, even above bringing in new business—addressing shareholder needs comes in last.
9. Brand Evangelist Study Confirms What We Know
Countless authors, speakers, bloggers, podcasters and other advocates of social media have pointed out that companies should focus on their biggest fans and that social media like blogs —- along with other Internet tools -— are ideal channels for such outreach.
Yahoo! and comScore Networks have released research today that validates that point of view. ”Engaging Advocates through Search and Social Media” makes the connection between effective use of the Net as a marketing channel and influence of brand advocates. Specifically, the study found (according to the press release):
- The Net has had a significant impact on how customers research and recommend brands.
- The Net amplifies Word of mouth so this trusted form of communication reaches larger audiences.
- The Net has given rise to brand advocates as primary influencers. Two brand advocates convert friends or family members to buy a product or brand for every one ordinary customer.
- Brand advocates are better connected and have a larger sphere of influence, elevating their value to marketers.
The study defines a brand advocate as…
“...adventurous opinion leaders and social influencers who are slightly younger, more educated and affluent, and spend more time online than non-advocates. They represent approximately 36 percent of the online purchasers surveyed across four categories including consumer electronics, automobiles, vacations and home mortgages. Brand Advocates are more active searchers and conduct 48 searches per month on average compared with 39 searches per month for non-advocates. In addition, half of Brand Advocates use search engines to research prior to purchasing, compared with one-third of non-advocates. By investing in the research process, Brand Advocates feel more satisfied with their decisions post-purchase, and therefore, are more compelled to talk about them.”
The study is a bounty of statistics supporting the value of targeting brand advocates. For example, the research found that half of brand advocates talk online to friends, family, and strangers about the focus of their passion, and 60% think good brands are worth talking about (vs. 26% of non-advocates). And—the part we social media advocates should like—the numbers show that brand advocates are fully emgaged with social media (ranging from instant messaging to podcasts) and using them in their product-related efforts. What’s more, brand advocates are far more likely to say something positive about a brand they like than they are to wax negative about brands they don’t.
The methodology applied to the study -— detailed in the press release —- is particularly impressive.
Link: http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2006/12/13/2167815.htm
10. Site of the Month
I’ve been suggesting for a while to clients and workshop audiences that page views are increasingly irrelevant. Steve Rubel argues that so-called Web 2.0 applications built in Flash, AJAX, and other technologies will allow users to see and do everything they want from within a single page, rendering page views as a form of measurement inaccurate. In a comment to Steve’s post, I suggested RSS feeds also diminish the page view’s value. I breeze through several hundred pages ever morning, sometimes twice a day, ignoring sites with no new content and rarely visiting the sites whose content does interest me—I read it directly from the news reader that never touches the web page.
The uptake of RSS has been slow, mostly because it was too geeky for most people to get started. But most browsers have subscription and feed management built in, and Internet Explorer 7 has its RSS integration down cold.
Advertisers, of course, depend on page views to assess the value of a site as a venue for their ads, so as the page view fades from the scene, companies will have to find other means of reaching their audiences. Some people like the idea of ads in the feed. That might work, but ultimately, more creative marketing that moves away from intrusive advertising will be more effective.
In any case, explaining RSS’s impact on the death throes of page views isn’t easy, but John Wall has done a great job with a very short screencast that makes the concept crystal clear. (John is the host of The M Show and author of the new (and terrific) Ronin Marketer blog.) Using the features of IE7, he walks you through the subscription process and how it dramatically reduces the number of actual web pages you’ll visit.
http://www.themshow.com/wordpress/2006/12/12/web-30-part-2-killing-banner-ads/
11. HC+T update
>>>Shel will present the closing keynote address at the Third Annual New Communications Forum on March 7, 2007. The Forum is being co-presented by its originator, the Society for New Communications Research, and Lawrence Ragan Communications. It’ll be held over three days at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.
>>>Shel will be speaking at two IABC chapter events, one in San Diego on March 28 and one in Dayton, Ohio, on April 26.
>>>We’re looking good for release of “How to Do Everything With Podcasting” in March 2007.
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