Archive for November, 2006
Posted November 21st, 2006 by admin
The NFL has now jumped on the wagon of hosting user-generated content. The Cincinnati Bengals have become the first NFL team to launch a video site attached to their NFL main page. Fans are now able to upload user-generated content to show their support and love for the Bengals.
“The addition of fan-contributed videos is aimed at trying to get as much traffic to the site as possible and trying to keep people engaged throughout the year,” said Vince Cicero, the Bengals’ director of corporate sales and marketing.
The video site is being hosted by ViTrue, which recently acquired Sharkle.com. It looks to be a smaller version of YouTube by providing marketers with tools for creating consumer interactions.
Posted November 21st, 2006 by Scott
What should one expect when attending an interview among avatars and an audience alike? How can you focus when an avatar resembling Predator is flying around the amphitheatre in the middle of the interview? It’s simple…..
Despite having spent time wandering around in Second Life, I had yet to engage in a live media Q & A session. On Nov. 17 I attended my first Second Life interview conducted by CNET News.com reporter Daniel Terdiman, aka GreeterDan Godel. His guest was Internet trendsetter and virtual world extraordinaire, Joi Ito, Vice President in charge of International Business and Mobile devices at Technorati. There I was sitting in the second row, first seat of a well-attended interview with people I have previously only read about in blogs and articles witnessing a discussion with one of the leaders in Internet innovation. I was amazed at how smoothly the interview went. Seventy-five minutes and my eyes were glued to the stage. I don’t know if it was the engaging discussion that had me alert or the fact that the avatar in front of me was sipping a glass of champagne.
You might be asking yourself, “What could one possibly learn from an avatar?” Ito gave the audience those answers, highlighting topics like the necessity for revised copyright laws to protect information on the Internet. I, for one, learned about the public licenses needed for creative works so that artists and professionals can share more than they are allowed to currently without having to worry about someone pilfering it.
Five years ago few of us would have imagined the experiences available in a virtual world and I can only imagine where we will be five years from now. What’s next — professional sports teams powered by un-athletic computer programmers? A government elected by the residents of Second Life? Whatever the future of the real world is, the best part of Second Life is that its future is in the hands of its residents.
Posted November 21st, 2006 by Kelby
This week’s Holmes Report contains an excellent article on public relations in the blogosphere. I won’t summarize the article as Paul does an excellent job examining the conversations in place, but basically it examines whether PR pros have a place in the blogosphere or if recent PR miscues demonstrate that PR needs to run hard and fast away from digital relations. Personally, I think PR definitely has a place (and not just because that is what I am paid to do) and that many firms and individuals are doing excellent work on behalf of their clients, building relationships and publicizing their messages.
The joy and pain of the blogosphere is its open nature. When you mess up, everyone knows. Much like the same phenomenon that prompts travelers to slow down when they see an accident on the highway – everyone wants to take a moment to see the carnage and tell their friends about it – bad PR stories spread far and wide and fast. When online PR is done well, the only people who know are your client and the audience they talk to (blogs, communities, etc.) who are interested in what your client says and benefit from the new or expanded relationship with your client.
Edelman and its WalMart fiasco is a prime example of how not to do PR online, but that same firm does outstanding work for other clients and is a leading voice in the PR industry for digital media relations. Shift, and its work with Tom Foremski and the new media press release, is another example of a firm taking an active and vocal role in setting online best practices. Other PR pros doing excellent work in this medium are taking a less vocal role, but are quietly building relationships with their clients and bloggers. People like Tom Foremski, Marshall Kirkpatrick, Liz Gannes, and others who may not know my first name, but they now know those of my clients who swim in their pond – and at the end of the day, that’s what matters.
Regardless of where you stand, or think you stand, on the online digital PR scale, I recommend that you read Paul’s article. In addition to providing some useful suggestions on how to best communicate online, it gives an interesting perspective from those like Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia and the Dreamland residents in Second Life who have encountered “bad” PR.
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