NevilleHobson.com

Cision’s Top 10 UK PR blogs

neville@nevillehobson.com (Neville Hobson) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:19:00 +0000

Business and communication intelligence firm Cision updated their list yesterday of the top 10 PR blogs in the UK, which now looks like this:

I don’t know their ranking methodology but I must admit to being quite flattered that my blog is ranked by Cision as the #1 PR blog in the UK.

In prefacing the top 10 list, Cision says:

[…] Covering the latest developments in communications technology, the impact of the web on political dialogue and the convergence of PR with other communications activity, the blogs listed below represent the most visible, engaged and social of the UK PR blogosphere.

I know of all the others blogs, and actually know quite a few of the bloggers themselves. All a good and worthy group on any list!

Cision has produced a number of other lists that rank the UK blogosphere in varying ways:

Useful and credible business resources.

Inputs on IABC conference connectivity

neville@nevillehobson.com (Neville Hobson) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:38:00 +0000

One thought about the 2009 IABC World Conference in San Francisco has been floating in my mind since I was at the event in early June.

That thought is to do with connectivity.

By that, I mean the difficulty I experienced (as did others) in getting a consistent and reliable-strength wifi signal in most of the conference areas in the San Francisco Marriott Hotel where the event took place.

The pic here shows my podcasting partner Shel Holtz sporting a nifty wifi t-shirt that lit up whenever it detected a wifi signal, and progressively illuminated according to the strength of that signal.

In this instance, I remember we were standing in the conference exhibition area when I took the photo – pretty solid strength as Shel lit up!

Certainly not typical if you went down a floor to the session rooms. On that floor, if there was a common comment I heard from many people, it was “Is there wifi?” or “You have wifi? I can’t get a connection.”

I also encountered another reality of big-venue events – inflexibility over connectivity. Let me give you an example.

I led a pre-conference podcasting workshop on the Sunday afternoon. Part of the setup I requested was internet access. They gave me wired access, which was fine, but what I really needed was wireless (wifi) so I could do my experiment with Audioboo from the iPhone.

The wired connection couldn’t be changed without paying for a new account. I was willing to do that until the hotel told me the price was in the hundreds of dollars. Even the idea of unplugging the wired connection and then just using wifi wouldn’t work – they note IP addresses and weird stuff like that and would see a separate, chargeable, connection.

Outrageous, frankly. But a zero-cost solution did present itself (and that’s all I will say about that).

All of this came to mind yesterday when I completed the survey IABC asks all conference speakers to do as a means of capturing thoughts, opinions and suggestions that IABC’s conference planners may find helpful when planning the next international conference (which, if you want to note your diary, takes place from June 6-9, 2010, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada).

Funnily enough, it wasn’t wifi that came to my mind first when I did the survey, but rather, the lack of power connectivity that I observed.

You know how it is at most conferences – those with laptops or any device requiring an electrical connection sit around the periphery of a room, wherever power outlets are located.

Whichever conference venue sorts this issue out by having plenty of outlets in convenient locations for everyone to plug into – and in some older buildings, they’ll need lots of power strips – as well as gets wifi sorted out will clean up the conference market in their city, I reckon.

Anyway, here are the specific suggestions I made to IABC when I got the the right question in the survey:

11. What changes, additions or improvements would you recommend?

One of the interesting things I observed was the large numbers of conference attendees constantly searching for power outlets into which to connect their devices, whether those devices are laptops, mobile phones, whatever. Helpful, therefore, at the next venue to provide power strips in strategic locations in meetings rooms, etc, so that people can focus on what they can do with their devices to connect and communicate rather than be concerned about whether they have enough juice.

Related – wifi connectivity. Absolutely appalling in the SF venue: once you went down those escalators, either you couldn’t get a signal or the one you did get was part of the hotel’s business wifi packages that had secure access and a very high $$$ cost to use.

Consider negotiating a conference pricing deal with an ISP for wifi connectivity for the next conference. Better still, find a sponsor who will provide free wifi for the event.

Hope it helps.

As a final comment, let me say that this post is by no means a criticism of anyone at IABC. On the contrary – the 2009 conference was simply terrific!

Related post:

Conferences are about frameworks and participation

The Hobson and Holtz Report – Podcast #462: July 2, 2009

neville@nevillehobson.com (Neville Hobson) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:24:22 +0000

Content summary: Lee Aase, manager of syndication and social media for The Mayo Clinic, joins Shel as guest co-host; please vote for FIR on Podcast Alley; Lee and Shel discuss the growth of social media in health care; the Media Monitoring Minute with CustomScoop; Dan York reports on Facebook privacy changes; News That Fits: Malcolm Gladwell vs Chris Anderson, a Johns Hopkins executive blogs and tweets her kidney donation, why you should monitor your URLs on Twitter, the Blog Council becomes the Social Media Business Council and moves to socialmedia.org, half of intranets have adopted Enterprise 2.0, senior journalists are jumping ship for new careers in the PR industry; David Phillips reports on research he’ll present at a conference at Lake Bled, Slovenia; listener comments; music from Chester Bay; and more.

About our guest co-host: Lee Aase is manager of Syndication and Social Media for Mayo Clinic. His team’s focus is developing quality medical news resources for mainstream media, and using social media applications to create more in-depth, extended relationships directly with key stakeholders. Lee lives in Austin, Minnesota and is the chancellor of Social Media University Global (SMUG).

Be sure to listen to our interview with Lee from February 2009.

Get FIR:

Messages from our sponsors: FIR is brought to you with Lawrence Ragan Communications, serving communicators worldwide for 35 years, www.ragan.com; Save time with the CustomScoop online clipping service: sign up for your free two-week trial, at www.customscoop.com/fir.

For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report, for July 2, 2009: A 71-minute podcast recorded live from Concord, California, and Rochester, Minnesota, USA.

Links for the blogs, individuals, companies and organizations we discussed or mentioned in the show are posted to the FIR Show Links pages at The New PR Wiki. You can contribute – see the show notes home page for info.

FIR #462 show notes at The New PR Wiki

Share your comments or questions about this show, or suggestions for future shows, in the FIR FriendFeed Room. You can also email us at fircomments@gmail.com; call the Comment Line at +1 206 222 2803 (North America), +44 20 8133 9844 (Europe), or Skype: fircomments; comment at Twitter: twitter.com/FIR, or at Jaiku: fir.jaiku.com. You can email your comments, questions and suggestions as MP3 file attachments, if you wish (max. 3 minutes / 5Mb attachment, please!). We’ll be happy to see how we can include your audio contribution in a show.

Join the FIR Discussion Forum and extend your conversations with the FIR community. You can also join the FIR Facebook Community and become an FIR friend.

To stay informed about occasional FIR events (eg, FIR Live), sign up for FIR Update email news.

So, until Monday July 6…

(Cross-posted from For Immediate Release, Shel’s and my podcast blog.)

Twitter Flickr

neville@nevillehobson.com (Neville Hobson) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 06:28:00 +0000

A new feature has come to Flickr, the photo-sharing service, that means you can post notifications and other announcements about your photos to your Twitter account from Flickr itself.

The new feature is simple to set up and works well, as a test tweet I did indicates.

Once set up, you can click on a ‘Blog this’ button on a photo page when available (account holders can turn off this feature on their photos, so you may not always see it).

You’ll get a page similar to the screenshot above where you can type your text in a text box, up to 116 characters (leaving the balance between that and 140 for the short URL).

Then you post the entry and get a tweet!

Many people will find it a useful feature that lets you broadcast details of your pics (and videos) on Flickr to your community on Twitter.

The only hesitation I have is thinking about other means I’ve already set up that include Flickr photos in notifications that go out to my Twitter community, all of them automated.

Friendfeed, for instance, which notes every time I post photos to Flickr. Mobypicture, too, which cross-posts photo uploads to my Flickr account, and which get auto-tweeted.

So I’d want to think carefully about tweeting so that I don’t overload everyone with information they may already have via other means.

But if you don’t have any other means set up, then you’ll find this handy.

Note the URL shortening service Flickr uses – their own.

The wording you see when you set this up and when you want to tweet a photo suggests to me that it’s an extension, so to speak, of what Flickr already had set up for posting info about pics from Flickr to a blog and via email to Flickr – “Blog this photo” and other descriptors aren’t how you’d talk about Twitter.

And the only thing I can’t see clearly is whether tweets get sent automatically whenever you upload photos to Flickr, or whether it works only if you manually tweet one, as I did in the test. I think it’s manual only (I’ll find out on the next uploads I do; if it’s different, I’ll update this post).

Still, it’s a great additional service from Flickr.

Mining the MJ community

neville@nevillehobson.com (Neville Hobson) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:42:56 +0000

This is going to be huge.

The official Michael Jackson website invites its visitors to share their MJ memories in classic blog comment form. As of writing there are 354 044 memories “from Michael Jackson fans worldwide”, and growing naturally. Meanwhile, the Facebook page now clocks in 2 414 413 fans. On June 26, the same page had 880 991 fans…

(Via The Blog Herald: Share Your Michael Jackson Memories.)

As I write this post, the memories count has gone up to 366,543 and the Facebook fans number is 2,500,059.

[Later] See Nick Burcher’s analysis he posted yesterday: Michael Jackson Facebook Fan Pages gain over 1 million new fans in 3 days.

Note that the official Michael Jackson website is produced by record label Sony Music Entertainment and whose name appears as copyright owner. No Creative Commons there!

Related post:

Gearing up for a Michael Jackson bonanza

What it takes to be a citizen journalist

neville@nevillehobson.com (Neville Hobson) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:30:43 +0000

Google just launched the YouTube Reporters Center.

Ever captured a natural disaster or a crime on your cell-phone camera? Filmed a political rally or protest, and then interviewed the participants afterward? Produced a story about a local issue in your community? If you’ve done any of these things or aspire to, then you’re part of the enormous community of citizen reporters on YouTube, and this channel is for you. The YouTube Reporters’ Center is a new resource to help you learn more about how to report the news. It features some of the nation’s top journalists and news organizations sharing instructional videos with tips and advice for better reporting.

US-focused of course but a pretty good place to get some tips and ideas on how to create video content that has a better chance of standing out, being noticed, being commented on, linked to, etc.

Does a place on the web like this make everyone a “citizen journalist”? Arianna Huffington thinks it does in this video, one of more than 30 on the site.

Pay attention at around the 3:40 mark as Arianna tells that that to be a citizen journalist, “all you need is passion, a little training and the desire to tell a good story” (that “little training” bit might be a big step for some).

I’d add “be in the right place at the right time with a device that has a network connection.”

So is that all it would take to be a citizen journalist? Maybe it is – take a look at the Wikipedia definition.

In any event, the YouTube Reporters’ Center is a useful resource wherever and however you plan to use your video content, on YouTube or any other place, or provide guidance and help to others.

The Hobson and Holtz Report – Podcast #461: June 29, 2009

neville@nevillehobson.com (Neville Hobson) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:03:01 +0000

Content summary: Steve Crescenzo joins Shel as special guest co-host in Neville’s absence. The Mayo Clinic’s Lee Aase will fill in for Neville on Thursday. FIR Live from June 26 is up featuring a conversation about influencer outreach with special guest Gary Vaynerchuk, along with John Cass, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, and Kaitlyn Wilkins of OgilvyPR. Neville welcomes Steve and explains his absence. Follow-up to a conversation from episode #459 about the value and future of paid conferences, with comments from Robin Brown, Chris Thilk and Tony Molloy. Michael Netzley reports from Singapore. Media Monitoring Minute. Discussion topic: One social media battle won, but now how do we get people to do it right? News That Fits: the cost and payoff of investing in social media; how to get your company to pay you to blog. Listener comments. Music from Uncle Seth.

About our guest co-host: Through his work as a consultant, writer and seminar leader, Steve Crescenzo has helped thousands of communicators improve both their print and electronic communication efforts. Recognized as one of the nation’s leading experts in employee communications, Crescenzo is the leader of three popular workshops: Strategic Employee Communication Vehicles, Integrating Print and Online Communication Vehicles, and The Master Class of Employee Communication. He has also taught seminars at IABC’s 2001 through 2008 International Conferences as well as at numerous IABC chapter and district events throughout America and Europe. He was the number one rated speaker of IABC’s International Conference in 2002 and 2008, and has been asked to speak in IABC’S “All Star Track” for the past four years. Steve also writes a regular column in IABC’s Communication World.

Get FIR:

For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report, for June 29, 2009: A 67-minute podcast recorded live from Concord, California and Chicago, Illinois, USA.

FIR #461 show notes at The New PR Wiki

Join the FIR Discussion Forum and extend your conversations with the FIR community. You can also join the FIR Facebook Community and become an FIR friend.

To stay informed about occasional FIR events (eg, FIR Live), sign up for FIR Update email news.

So, until Thursday, July 2…

(Cross-posted from For Immediate Release, Shel’s and my podcast blog.)

Gearing up for a Michael Jackson bonanza

neville@nevillehobson.com (Neville Hobson) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 05:56:00 +0000

At various times during the weekend when I was out and about, I was checking the latest news on my iPhone, usually with the excellent Sky News app.

It did amaze me at one point on Saturday to note that every major news story I saw was something about Michael Jackson.

That’s almost all there’s been on TV news since the entertainer died unexpectedly last Thursday.

But if you thought the news every which-way angle about what happened last week was overwhelming, and wondered when (or even if) your favourite radio station would again play music other than Michael Jackson tracks, get ready for what’s coming from the entertainment industry as the marketing machine gears up to maximize revenue opportunities from a huge re-issue of Jackson’s music catalogue.

First, take a look at what’s starting on eBay as increasing amounts of Michael Jackson content appears for sale. (Hmm, I have an original 1982 copy of the Thriller CD. I love the music but I wonder…)

Some of the signals in the mainstream media:

Sales of Jackson music, videos climbs online – Yahoo News US/ Associated Press

Michael Jackson’s death has led to skyrocketing sales of his music and videos, with major retailers like Amazon.com Inc. and Barnes and Noble Inc. selling out of products that have regained immense popularity overnight.

Bill Carr, Amazon’s vice president of music and video, said Friday that once the world learned that the pop icon had died Thursday, the Web site sold out within minutes all CDs by Michael Jackson and by the Jackson 5 — the group Jackson and his four older brothers formed out of Gary, Ind., in the late ’60s.

Sixty percent of Amazon’s CD orders Thursday were for Michael Jackson music, something Carr called "stunning." He said he’d "never seen anything like this" before at Amazon after the death of a pop culture icon.

As of Friday afternoon, Jackson’s albums accounted for all 10 of Amazon’s "Bestsellers in Music" list, with the 25th anniversary edition of the celebrated "Thriller" album taking the top spot.

Michael Jackson Catalog Sales Soar on iTunes, Amazon – Rolling Stone

As the entire world mourns the death of Michael Jackson, many are celebrating the King of Pop’s unparalleled musical legacy. Following the news of Jackson’s sudden passing, Jackson songs and albums immediately begin climbing the sales charts at digital music stores. Over on iTunes, the current top five albums, and seven of the Top 10, are all Jackson releases, with The Essential Michael Jackson, Thriller and Off the Wall all leading the charge. The same goes for the Amazon MP3 store, where Jackson is listed as the service’s top-selling artist of the day. Last.fm also documented the incredible jump in people on their service listening to Michael Jackson in the moments following Jackson’s death, with a peak of roughly 42,000 MJ songs being played on the service between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. ET yesterday [June 25].

Michael Jackson tops UK album charts as sales surge – The Guardian

[…] Jackson’s Number Ones album, that features many of his biggest hits, reached the top spot and four other albums made it into the top 20.

In total 11 Michael Jackson or Jackson Five albums made it into this week’s top 200 and 43 out of the top 200 singles featured the singer.

Music retailers said demand for his music had been overwhelming since his death on Thursday. HMV spokesman Gennaro Castaldo said the music store had seen sales rise 80 times over in the 24 hours after Jackson’s death – the biggest one day increase for any artist in the store’s history.

"There’s been huge demand for Michael’s recordings over the past few days – so it’s really no surprise that Number Ones has gone to the top of the official UK album charts, which pretty much has all his greatest hits on, and is the CD most people have been going for," Castaldo said.

Jackson ‘album sales massively increase’ – Digital Spy UK

[…] Eight of Jackson’s albums now dominate the iTunes Top 10, with his recent ‘Number Ones’ collection claiming the top spot.

The iTunes Top 100 singles currently include thirty-one of his solo songs and three by the Jackson 5. 1988 single ‘Man In The Middle’ is leading the pack at number ten.

According to Jackson’s record label Sony Music, the star has sold an estimated 750 million records worldwide.

Demand soars for Jackson music after singer’s death – Yahoo News UK / Reuters

[…] His death has sparked renewed interest in his albums and videos. Everyone from the labels that produced his albums to media outlets, retailers and street vendors selling Jackson T-shirts is set to cash in to the tune of millions of dollars.

"Michael pulled an Elvis. It’s probably the best thing that happened to them this year," Wayne Rosso, a music industry consultant and publicity executive, said of various Sony record labels that own Jackson’s music.

Jacko’s Dad: Michael Will Be Bigger In Death – Sky News

[In a statement from the family, father Joe Jackson] told fans: "Michael would not want us to give up now. Please do not despair, because Michael will continue to live on in each and every one of you.

"Continue to spread his message, because that is what he would want you to do. Carry on, so his legacy will live forever."

The family is believed to be planning a series of simultaneous global celebrations to honour the star.

Wealth of Michael Jackson could be boosted by death – The Times

He conquered the pop world and created sales records that could remain unchallenged, but Michael Jackson may have another number one position waiting for him: the highest-earning dead celebrity.

The annual Forbes magazine list of big earners that are deceased tells the story of death’s ability to boost a brand. Bob Marley, Kurt Cobain, Johnny Cash and Tupac Shakur are all on it, each making millions every year and in some cases more than living singers such as Madonna.

For the past two years, Elvis Presley has held the top position with annual earnings of about $50 million (£30.3 million). If the Neverland Ranch is opened to the public and the current frenzy for his music continues, Jackson could find his earnings hitting twice those of Presley. The figure could be even higher if, along with the untangling of his finances and some clever management, a rumoured album of unreleased songs emerges quick enough for sales to be driven by what some music industry figures are referring to as “grief momentum”.

These are just signals: the marketing machine hasn’t moved out of first gear yet.

A morbid thought perhaps, but this looks like only the start of a process that could see more sales of Michael Jackson’s music and memorabilia than when he was alive.

Not only by and for the family and the music industry, and not just about obvious products, either – just take a look at this imaginative fan site, Billie Tweets, that plays Billie Jean and pulls in tweets that sync key words in each tweet to the music.

The site is liberally sprinkled with affiliate links to places on Amazon.com where you can buy Michael Jackson’s music.

An opportunity for everyone, then.

Related post:

RIP Michael Jackson, you thrilled us

Mashable’s one-stop guide to Twitter

neville@nevillehobson.com (Neville Hobson) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 05:36:03 +0000

Pete Cashmore of internet news site Mashable asks:

Where’s the user manual for Twitter? Where do new Twitter users go to learn about Tweeting, retweets, hashtags and customizing your Twitter profile? Where do you go if you want to know all about building a community on Twitter, or using Twitter for business? How can you find advanced tools for using Twitter on your phone or your desktop?

One answer is The Twitter Guide Book from Mashable.

Mashable is one of the best places on the net for useful information about Twitter. Their feature in January about 40 brands on Twitter and the people behind them is especially notable.

So this one-stop place on the net for just about everything you want to know about Twitter and how to use it for business is worth checking out.

Section headings are:

Twitter 101 – The Basics
Building Your Twitter Community
Twitter for Business
Top Twitter Follows
Sharing on Twitter
Managing Your Twitter Stream

And much more on the site.

A useful resource.

Impressions of TweetCamp

neville@nevillehobson.com (Neville Hobson) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 09:35:00 +0000

An extremely enjoyable day is how I’d sum up my overall thoughts about TweetCamp London 09 which took place yesterday, June 27, in Richmond.

I reckon there were well over 100 people at this event, superbly organized by Farhan Rehman, Desigan Chinniah and Jon Bishop plus a host of contributor-organizers (the ones wearing dark blue t-shirts such as Matt O’Neill [photo] and Benjamin Ellis).

I was especially impressed by the excellent organization of the event. That’s down to the three organizers – I’d hire them to organize an event! – and all the helpers plus the sponsors without whom I don’t think TweetCamp could have happened.

According to the t-shirts (photo above by Adam Tinworth), those sponsors were PayPal – the event took place in the UK office of their parent company, eBay – Gumtree, Addlestones, mymuesli and Sun Startup Essentials.

I’ve recorded some thoughts in an Audiboo, below, but let me bullet-point some of my impressions.

Excellent organization, as I’ve mentioned.
The venue was great: good wifi but a seriously complicated WPA password, though.
Terrific schwag in the goodies bag.
The ‘paper wiki’ is an excellent concept but it didn’t really capture people’s imaginations. Hopefully creator Jon Bishop will explain his thinking sometime because it is a good idea.
Everyone was well looked after in terms of refreshments (bacon butties to start, for instance, and an always-full Coke machine) and outstanding lunch with plenty to go round. Thanks again to the sponsors.
Met loads of familiar faces plus an equal load of new ones: the essence of TweetCamp.
Terrific conversation during the lunch period with Sarah Blow who sorted out my Tweetmeme plugin for WordPress and also ended my laptop sticker virginity.
Equally great conversation with Chris Heuer who got what he wanted with a WordPress plugin to live-blog tweets.
Another terrific conversation in the afternoon in a breakout group with James Cridland, Kate Arkless Gray and Jim Anning about the future and the role of social media such as Twitter. The answer, of course, is 42.
Did I mention TweetCamp was well organized?

Listen!