On a slightly more upbeat note, the Wall Street Journal threw the latest wrinkle into your media outreach plans this week, by launching its new Digits blog. While those outside of Silicon Valley and the media (& PR) industry may see it as a minor move – it could alter the tech media landscape.
Finally, the Journal has put considerable resources into its technology blogging, in a direct effort to compete with the Times’ Bits Blog.
The Journal’s (now former) Business Technology blog, which was almost solely manned by Ben Worthen, was never easy to find – as editors at the WSJ.com failed to make it an integral aspect of their technology coverage (Something that the nytimes.com has succeeded in doing with Bits). In finally making the official move to Digits, the Journal has a platform for its 22 tech writers (10 more than the NYT’s uses for Bits) to cover breaking technology news in real-time along with news from start-ups, which may not make it into the print issue.
Sure, some will poke fun at the Journal(and perhaps rightly so) for seemingly copying the Bits’ blog structure (Julia Angwin plays the Bizarro Saul Hansell role) and name (Bits, Digits, Code, Oh-My!).
However, with the Journal’s sources and “inside” reporting, the addition of (not just another) tech blog to an already crowded market is nothing to sneeze at for folks like Michael Arrington and Om Malik. They will break stories and there will be people lining up to talk with them (knowing that they have a new platform to cover more stories).
Web 2.0 companies like Facebook and Google are actively encouraging Americans to vote today. Google has gone the traditional route with a graphic for the occasion:
Facebook is also encouraging people to vote, and is even tallying how many Facebook users have gone to the polls:
Meanwhile, The New York Times is also trying to figure out how voters are feeling, and have asked people to write the words that describe their current state of mind:
Add this to the list of strange stories: A woman in Japan has been arrested (in real life) after deleting her (virtual) ex-husband’s video game identity.
The couple was (virtually) married in a video game called Maple Story, and the woman’s (virtual) husband decided he wanted to (virtually) break up. She got upset and hacked into his (real) Maple Story account to delete his online persona. She was arrested this week on suspicion of hacking.
The crime could result in a five year prison sentence and a fine of $5,000.
Unfortunately, this virtual divorce and murder is just an example of what’s happening in real life due to video game that may seem a little to real, and social networks like Facebook becoming the official guide to relationship statuses.
Just this week a man in London known as the ‘Facebook Killer’ was sentenced to life in prison for murdering his ex-wife. The man killed his wife after she changed her Facebook relationship status to ‘single’ just four days after they separated. The man told offers he felt devastated and humiliated that she changed her relationship status so quickly and publicly, and announced that she was looking for other men.
These two cases are unfortunate examples how some people get way too wrapped up in what’s online and aren’t able to separate social networks and video games from real life. Let’s hope they don’t continue.
It’s an interesting experiment for NBC, as the show won’t air on television until next week and much of their dedicated audience will have likely already watched it by then. However, all of those Tina Fey SNL appearances might be able to boost the show’s ratings regardless.
What do you think of NBC’s plan to release some shows early? Will it pay off to create a buzz online before it airs on the network?
As we prepare for tonight’s third and final presidential debate, Senator John McCain’s campaign is having some problems with YouTube.
McCain’s camp sent a letter to YouTube on Monday, accusing the popular online video site of acting too quickly to comply with copyright infringement notices when they took down his campaign advertisements. (One video in particular was also pulled by CBS because it featured Katie Couric, and CBS said the network did not endorse a specific candidate).
According to Computerworld, the letter was sent to Google (YouTube’s parent company) protesting YouTube’s removal of unnamed videos from the site after receiving take-down notices claiming copyright infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The letter goes on to suggest that YouTube set up a special process for reviewing the legal merit of take-down requests for YouTube accounts associated with candidates or their campaigns, since they do not want to wait the standard 10 days for a resolution.
Highlighting the letter was the sense of urgency to have the situation resolved quickly since the election is just a few weeks away: “10 days can be a lifetime in a political campaign, and there is no justification for depriving the American people of access to important and timely campaign videos during that period.”
We try to be careful not to favor one category of content on our site over others, and to treat all of our users fairly, regardless of whether they are an individual, a large corporation or a candidate for public office….we hope that as a content uploader, you have gained a sense of some of the challenges we face everyday in operating YouTube. We look forward to working with Senator (or President) McCain on ways to combat abuse of the D.M.C.A. takedown process on YouTube, including, by way of example, strengthening the fair use doctrine.
Clearly McCain’s team was hoping for a more immediate and different response that would result in the videos being allowed, but it shows how important the internet has become in today’s world.
Is it even possible to go online without seeing something about the 2009 presidential election?
Between video excerpts of Gov. Sarah Palin’s interview with Katie Couric and the great SNL videos, the web has gone wild with politics.
I’m sure everyone has seen the David Letterman videos about Sen. John McCain along with the other videos from late-night personalities, but what’s great about this election is that the internet has enabled anyone to get involved.
Twitter’s election feature is one example of bringing everyone together to share their opinions. I’ve tried going on it a couple times but it’s simply impossible to keep up with every tweet coming in the feed. Blogs have also had a tremendous impact, as just this week there were blog rumors about Sen. Barack Obama grabbing Sen. Hillary Clinton for his VP at the last second that were just convincing enough for the Los Angeles Times to write an article about it.
Between blogs, online video and social networks like Twitter, the internet has had a huge impact on this election and also enabled us to watch and analyze every move of these political figures. We’ve also had a lot of viral videos on YouTube and other sites, including the one above.
Commercials no longer just appear on TV and radio. They are now made to become viral videos as well. Even the late-night videos have gone viral, as NBC’s highest circulated video ever is Palin/Clinton opening from their first episode.
I have no doubt that after tonight’s debate (actually, during tonight’s debate) the internet will once again be buzzing with comments, analysis, videos, and jokes about Sen. Joe Biden and Palin. It just shows how the Web has enabled us to connect and share information easier then ever before.
UPDATE (10/03/08) Shortly after writing this post the Obama campaign released an Obama iPhone application, a tool to help his supporters access up-to-date information about the campaign, news, and what Obama’s been up to. It also has a feature ‘Call Friends’ tool that prioritizes and organizes the contacts in your address book by key battleground states.
In June, we had the opportunity to hear Ron Ploof speak at the Digital Impact Conference, and recently caught up with him to talk about new media strategies, corporate micro-blogging, PR social media best practices, and his new book about practical B2B uses for New Media.
As a New Media Evangelist, Ron has worked with a $1.2 billion Fortune 1000 company to adopt New Media technologies, launch eight blogs, produce audio programming, and integrate corporate video with traditional marketing and public relations vehicles.
Q: What are a few social media sites and resources you would recommend for someone looking to get their feet wet in the new media space?
By “getting their feet wet,” I’m going to assume that they’re new to the New/Social Media/Web 2.0 space. If that’s true, then by far the most important concept they need to wrap their heads around is RSS. I’m sure there are lots of people who read the RaceTalk blog who may consider RSS passé, but RSS is the building block of New Media. It’s what connects the new publishers with the new listeners. So, even if you understand and use a RSS regularly, consider revisiting it as a “back to the basics” activity.
RSS represents the ultimate form of “opt-in,” because a subscriber willingly opens up a line of communication with you — on their terms not yours. This is markedly different from traditional marketing techniques because in the old days, marketers controlled the distribution. With an email list, if I wanted to “opt-out” of your list, I was at your mercy. RSS reverses the polarity. If I want to “opt-out” of your RSS feed, I can do so swiftly and easily — and there’s nothing you can do about it. Therefore, with the control placed into the consumer’s hands as opposed to the marketer’s, a new form of content needs to be created. One that is so valuable that content consumers stay subscribed.
Q: Where do you feel most companies currently stand when it comes to successfully leveraging social media? How can they improve?
We haven’t even scratched the surface yet. When I speak before mainstream business people, I give them a little test. I’ll ask them to define “blog” or identify symbols such as RSS. My unofficial findings are a bit humbling. Most have heard of blogs, but very few know what they are. Two months ago I was presenting before a group of business executives. After staring blankly at the RSS Symbol (the orange box with the dot and two curvy lines) for a few moments, someone piped in, “Is that the WiFi symbol?” they asked. And as for discussing services like Twitter? That just blows their minds.
We’re still in the early-adopter phase described in Geoffrey Moore’s Crossing the Chasm. The innovators and early adopters are using these new tools in groundbreaking ways. But mainstream business still has a long way to go.
As for those who’ve started using the technology, the way to improve is to focus on three things: Content, Content, and Content. People love stories. People love to be entertained. Become a storyteller and use all of the technologies at your disposal to tell your stories, whether it be in text, audio, video, or a combination thereof.
Q: As an active member of the Twitter community, what are your thoughts on companies/brands micro-blogging?
I prefer following people as opposed to brands. With that being said, I like time-sensitive or event-specific communications applications of Twitter. Live updates from a company or brand-sponsored event can give non-attendees an “insider’s feel” to the event. At the same time, conference attendees can use it to communicate back to the event organizers, who in turn can make changes on the fly. Then, after the conference is finished, a company/brand has access to a time-stamped database of conference topics that can be used for future event-planning or even the creation of new content.
Lastly, people get so caught up in “micro-blogging” that they forget that Twitter is also a listening device. Companies/brands should be using Twitter for ‘Micro-listening.” They should be firing up tools such as search.twitter.com. twitscoop.com, or tweetscan.com to see what people are saying about them.
Twitter and Tweetscan offer RSS feeds of their searches. Therefore, create a micro-listening strategy. Create a set of feeds that search for your brand, your competition, your industry. Gather the data. Look for trends. See where the conversation is leading. And lastly, don’t be afraid to engage the people who talk about you and your brand. Most people are pleasantly surprised when they throw something out into the ether and someone from the company in question writes back.
Q: What are some best practices tips you would offer for a PR person engaging in social media conversations for their client?
“…engaging…for the client?” I’m not a big fan of having conversations for other people. Whenever I hear this, I conjure this mental image of Cyrano de Bergerac hiding in the bushes and talking to Roxane through the handsome guy. It’s got the trappings of comedy written all over it! Conversations are between people — not firms talking to people, or firms talking to firms. The “social” in Social Media means exactly that.
I believe that PR professionals can be great Social Media coaches, though, helping their clients choose timely conversation topics. By using listening technologies and performing analysis on what they find, PR can guide clients on where to best spend their conversational time. They can recommend which communities to engage with and provide valuable editing services, to help the client become a better communicator.
Q: We read that you are working on your second book, which will discuss practical B2B uses for new media. Do you have any insider tips/thoughts you can share?
When Gutenberg invented the printing press, he unknowingly set a business model into motion that has been the defacto standard for over 500 years. Since only those with vast financial resources could own a printing press, a small number of people had incredible influence over a large number of people.
Business communications were built around this “Economics of Influence.” We developed advertising, so that businesses could buy their way into that influence. We invented Public Relations so that business could sell (convince journalists to write about them for free) their way into the influence.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the office. With the invention of free blogging software combined with RSS, anyone could own a printing press — for free. With Apple’s iTunes and a nominal hosting charge, anyone could own a radio station (podcast). And with YouTube, anyone could own a television station for free. The old Economics of Influence has been turned upside down.
Today, companies, competitors, customers, and investors can become their own publishers. All can deliver timely content directly to their constituencies, without their messages being filtered through a third party. It’s a different game. The rules are still evolving. Opportunities abound for those who are willing to play and challenges lurk for those who won’t.
Nobody knows exactly how this new game is going to play out. But we do know that the decisions that we make today will have a lasting impact on the future of communications. It’s a challenge that I’m up for. How about you?
***
Thank you to Ron for taking the time to speak with us.
RaceTalk recently connected with Bertalan (Berci) Meskó, a “Medicine 2.0″ enthusiast, active Twitter member, and up-and-coming medical mind who takes a look at the intersection of medicine, genetics and Web 2.0 on his award-winning blog, ScienceRoll. Among his many achievements, Berci is also a last-year medical student with a goal of becoming aclinical geneticist that specializes in personalized genomics. Below, Berci has given us some insight into the work he is doing, resources and tips for PR professionals, and a few best practices for engaging in healthcare and medical social media conversations and communities.
Q: How would you define Medicine 2.0?
Web 2.0 is changing the way medicine is practiced and healthcare is delivered. When we focus on the changes in medical education and communication between patients and physicians, we refer to it as medicine 2.0. When the healthcare system and on-line support groups are in focus, we refer to it as health 2.0. Actually, there is a new term, evidence-based web 2.0 originated from the evidence-based concept that is the main approach in medicine. As Dean Giustini said, it means the integration of the best available evidence of social software use in promoting effective time and information management skills in the digital age.
Q: What are a few sites, communities or resources you would recommend for a medical or healthcare company looking to get involved in Web 2.0?
There is a huge collection of medicine 2.0 services and sites on my blog and in the Medical Education Evolution community, we’re also working on a database containing useful links and tools of medicine and health 2.0.
Q: Do you have any basic guidelines or tips for companies that want to participate in Web 2.0 healthcare communities?
It depends on what kind of communities they plan to participate in. The main approach here is not to create something similar to what others are already doing. There are more and more scientific community sites and plenty of them are based on the same concept which is not a good idea when you want to attract people to take part in constructing your community. I think these companies must come up with a unique idea; must be open to collaborate with and respect quality bloggers; should use the power of web 2.0 to promote their projects instead of sending impersonal PR letters everywhere. David Rothman, one of the best medical librarian bloggers, has recently written about this issue and had some tips for PR people.
Q: What is some advice you would offer for PR people engaging in conversation on behalf of their clients, who are working to raise awareness about medical products or services within a Web 2.0 healthcare community?
Even if many bloggers tend to think PR letters are useless, I think it is a good way to discover a new medical service. But to be honest, when I receive an e-mail from a PR person and it doesn’t start with a personal welcome message, I click on the delete button immediately. If they want me to promote a new service (which can be beneficial for me too as I can get interesting content) at least they should find out more about that particular blogger.
Of course, newspapers are the main channels to promote new services, but take a look at some blogs such as Medgadget.com or WSJ Health and how many visitors they regularly have. Quality health bloggers should be taken seriously.
Q: Where do you see the future of healthcare and medicine heading? Are there trends we should watch for?
I believe, the Medical Education Evolution community can change radically the way medical education is organized these days. Education should not be traditional while practicing medicine is changing rapidly. There are three trends we should follow.
I would say, Jay Parkinson and his on-line medical practice (hellohealth.com) are on one side of the river of medicine. He revolutionized the way medicine is practiced by having a laptop and a car and being without a staff or an office.
On the other side of the river, there are e-patients who would like to communite with their doctors on-line, who would like to find information about their medical conditions on-line and do a search for the name of their doctor in Google. A good example is Maarten Lens-Fitzgerald who blogs about his medical condition, shares messages on Twitter, images on Flickr and X-rays on Slideshare.
Between them, there should be a bridge which, I hope, Webicina will be. Webicina.com is the first medicine 2.0 service which aims to help physicians enter the web 2.0 era with personalized packages, on-line image building solutions and e-courses.
The reason why I’m saying medicine will change a lot in the next few years is not the power (or bubble) of web 2.0, but the needs and expectations of e-patients. They will change the way medicine is practiced and healthcare is delivered. And physicians of the 21st century should be open and qualified to meet these challenges.
***
Thank you, Berci for your time! To learn more, visit RaceTalk’s sister blog Diagnosis PR, where Berci has answered a few more questions for us about the future of medicine, virtual learning, and scientific and medical social media tools.
Sarah Lacy, the author of Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good, keeps very busy between her gigs with BusinessWeek, Tech Ticker and all of her Twittering, but she was in Boston earlier this week to give a keynote and decided to have a book signing the night before.
Afterwords she took some time to answer a few questions for us.
RaceTalk: While doing research for your book and speaking with many Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, was there a particular experience or story about someone’s road to success that surprised you most?
Sarah Lacy: It’s hard to out-do (PayPal co-founder) Max Levchin’s road to Silicon Valley. This is a guy who grew up in soviet Russia learning to code on a programmable calculator. He actually wrote code out long hand in notebooks sitting on a park bench near his home, never knowing if it would actually work until he finally got his hands on a computer. He’s actually eluded death about four times. And even on his drive from Chicago to Palo Alto, his truck broke down and he was stranded for days. All entrepreneurs are determined, but Max takes it to an extreme level. Most surprising: he hasn’t gotten less intense as he’s had success.
RaceTalk: In your book you reference how Silicon Valley entrepreneurs have turned into celebrities. Do you think this is good for the tech space or does it place some additional unneeded pressure on these (often young) entrepreneurs?
SL: I’m hard pressed to find a way that it’s good, except that it hopefully encourages more smart kids to go down this path. Living in that spotlight is incredibly hard when you never asked for it and you’re working non-stop trying to build a company at break-neck speed. I’ve seen the toll it takes on them, and there’s a lot of injustice in how they get built up, then brutally torn down, when really, they’re just trying to build something they believe in.
RaceTalk: Some Silicon Valley start-ups have been extremely successful, but still haven’t figured out a great model for making money (Facebook, YouTube). Do you think they’ll overcome this issue, or might it turn into a major problem down the road?
SL: Both. In every wave of Silicon Valley there are a ton of ideas and a subset of those turn into products, a subset of those turn into good products, and still another subset of those ever figure out how to make money. Only a handful ever become big multi-billion dollar powerhouses. So, there will be a ton of failure and a ton of sub-$100 million deals. But I have no doubt a select few will crack the code. If you look at all the usage data, it’s simply too big an opportunity. And remember: This is not 1999. Many of these companies are making hundreds of millions of dollars already and they haven’t even really rolled out their killer business model yet, linkedin, facebook, myspace among them.
RaceTalk: You’re one of the more visible journalists in today’s world, as you’re using many different outlets to communicate with your readers (BusinessWeek, Tech Ticker, Twitter, your blog). Is there a particular means of communication that you enjoy most?
SL: Well you left out my book, which as a writer was my favorite! It’s rare in today’s media world that you really get the luxery to take so much time with one thing. But it’s not a great mass communication tool obviously because the process takes so long and book conversion is still way too hard.
So, right now I’m pretty high on Twitter. All social networks pull these levers that affect us in human ways—that’s what makes them so addictive. One of those levers is human connection and you can forge deeper, more intimate connections on Twitter than anything else. It’s also a way I can alert my audience to all of the things I’m doing, so it feeds all the other ones you mention. It was absolutely indispensable in planning my book tour.
RaceTalk: Clearly you’ve been focusing a lot on stories coming out of Silicon Valley, but is there another area that you’re interested in covering more in the future?
SL: I actually started covering venture capital and startups in the late 1990s as an outsider in the South. I was so captivated by it that I had to move to Silicon Valley to really study it. I’ve spent about 10 years doing that—close up and from every angle. I have no plans to abandon the Valley, and expect that San Francisco will always be my home, but I’m fascinated with taking that insight and going back into the rest of the world now, and studying other areas as deeply. I’m lucky that I work for myself (and just contract to Yahoo, BW etc) so I have some flexibility, really for the first time in my career. I think we’re at a crossroads when it comes to Web innovation and I want to see where else it’s happening, and how it’s taking on different forms.
RaceTalk: I hear you’re going to be taking some time off next year to work on your next book. Can you give us a teaser about what this one will be about?
SL: Why Ben, who’s the reporter now? If it’s next year it’ll be very late next year. I have a two-year contract with TechTicker that runs through Nov. 2009, and I really love working there and definitely plan on honoring that. After that we’ll see! But I do absolutely know what my next book will be about and I’m subtly gathering string on it, thinking about it all the time. It’s definitely not a sequel, but it’s similarly something I’m uniquely qualified to write. Mostly because I’m insane! It’s a very ambitious project.
Rupert Murdoch’s Dow Jones digital unit (AKA: Kara Swisher, Walt Mossberg & All Things Digital) got their New York beachhead in prying away Peter Kafka from the Silicon Alley Insider and Henry Blodget yesterday afternoon. Blodget broke the news with a post yesterday evening which tongue-in-cheek’ly implied that Walt and Kara had stolen his former managing editor.
Kara, in a post a few hours later, confirmed his story by noting that Peter has always been her and Walt’s top choice for a new East Coast voice. Kafka will leverage his relationships in the advertising and media world, which he built during his ten years at Forbes, to pen a ”Yet to be Named” media column for the online publication.
The move by Kara and Walt is very similar to the move Michael Arrington made last September in naming Erick Schonfeld the Co-Editor of TechCrunch. Schonfeld was hired with the intention of him staying in New York and building out the blog’s national appeal by adding an East Coast voice. Look for Kafka to do much of the same for All Things Digital, which is a good thing for East Coast companies looking to get on their radar screen.
New York City has become a vibrant scene for technology start-ups; especially for those in the media, marketing and advertising industries. Although Wall Street may be imploding, it doesn’t mean that the financial backers for these companies are going anywhere. One can look no further then Fred Wilson and Union Square Ventures to know that this start-up scene will continue to thrive; which is a nice consolation prize for Henry in loosing Peter - and more good news for Kara and Walt.
In June, we had the opportunity to hear 
RaceTalk recently connected with Bertalan (Berci) Meskó, a “Medicine 2.0″ enthusiast, active 
If it’s next year it’ll be very late next year. I have a two-year contract with TechTicker that runs through Nov. 2009, and I really love working there and definitely plan on honoring that. After that we’ll see! But I do absolutely know what my next book will be about and I’m subtly gathering string on it, thinking about it all the time. It’s definitely not a sequel, but it’s similarly something I’m uniquely qualified to write. Mostly because I’m insane! It’s a very ambitious project.
