A guest entry written by CustomScoop’s Sarah Wurrey.

I am a brand new Twitter devotee, thanks in part to Jim Horton’s latest white paper, a brief yet compelling examination of the possible public relations uses for the popular microblogging site. Jim breaks down the benefits and drawbacks of microblogging, and urges tech followers to hold off on calling it a fad—it could just become an important tool in the communicator’s arsenal. Also of note: Doug Haslam’s reaction to the paper.

When it comes to media relationships, is there such a thing as too much information? As social networks like Facebook have shifted into the business realm (particularly for PR), Todd Defren lays some ground rules for “friending� members of the media, recommending that if your page contains any content that may be labeled, to put it politely, “dubious,� you might still add media pros as friends, but give them only limited profile access. This ensures your relationship remains on solid ground without granting too much access to your personal life.

New media is like sex? Yes indeed, according to Chris Abraham at Marketing Conversations. In a somewhat “racy� post, Chris compares operating as a PR pro in 2.0 to seduction, pointing to transparency (the need to “know who you’re dealing with�) as the keystone of social media activities. And if you land in hot water? Deal with it straight up, and make the most of your mistake. Who knows, maybe the publicity you garner from mistakes can be just what you need.

In a post that just plain makes good sense, Susan Getgood examines some of the recent “blogstorms� that have plagued social media, focusing on both the Nikon blog loaner campaign and Debbie Weil’s misstep with the Alli blog. She defends her defense of the Nikon program, pointing out that the blogosphere’s “collective ability to navel gaze� seems to have gotten in the way here, as the program followed all the usual rules of engagement (full disclosure, etc), and that there’s nothing wrong with using existing PR relationships to get a little product promotion.

Since Geoff included a link regarding BarCamp DC last week, this week it’s BarCamp Manchester! CustomScoop was one of the sponsors of the event, held on July 28^th and attracting technology professionals from throughout New England. CustomScoop’s Ian Muir provides a rundown of the festivities here.

Sarah Wurrey is an account manager for CustomScoop, a media intelligence firm providing online news clipping services as well as blog monitoring and analysis. Aside from regular contributions to CustomScoop’s blog, she also serves as editor of PR Blog Jots, a daily rundown of conversations from top public relations and marketing blogs. Sarah shares thoughts on social media and technology at her personal blog, and can also be found on Twitter, Facebook and Pownce.

On August 6, Richard Becker (Copywrite, Ink.) and I will launch a weekly discussion of the best and worst of blogging content practices. Our hope is to use BlogStraightTalk help newer bloggers quickly grasp best practices, and accelerate valued participation within the communities. BlogStraightTalk is also a great forum for experienced bloggers to add their two cents, and help newer community members become more effective.

It should be pretty fun. Rich and I do go back and forth on some issues, so it could have a nice Pardon the Interruption “dueling pundits” feel to it. Come check it out!

A guest blog entry by Ike Pigott

Recently, Geoff asked a bunch of us to help him out with a social media exercise. His call for the creation of a Social Media Syllabus was answered quickly and efficiently, in exactly the manner you’d expect. The nature of social nets had already allowed him to sift through his universe of acquaintances in a non-intrusive way. It was an impressive list, and those who plugged in through any number of channels took away a patchwork of reading that is very likely to be related to the pieces they knew before. Except for one book.

“Who in the hell put FSTR on a Social Media Reading List?” Well, that would be me. And in the space below, I’ll explain why it belongs.

Our oldest notions of how the internet impacts our lives are very young, indeed — and our modern notions are not fully-formed; we’re still too close to our change. The “grandfather” of blogging has been at this for what, a whole decade now? And most internet users are just now catching up? There hasn’t been enough time to get a real grasp of what changes technology hath wrought on our individual and collective psyche, even if a crowd of self-proclaimed experts is spitting wisdom like wine at a tasting.

Enter James Gleick - award-winning correspondent and essayist for Discover Magazine. A talented writer, Gleick turned his eye on an important subject: the flattening of time. (I could make the case that Thomas Friedman took Gleick’s dimension of time, used it to distort space, and made the Earth Flatter for his best-seller. I could make another case that his previous book “Chaos” is even better, but I’m a sucker for non-linear math and unintended consequences.)

The book is “FSTR” - vowels removed because they take too much time. At the time it was written, “online social networks” were no more developed than AOL chatrooms and bulletin boards; people were still using Compuserve e-mail addresses; and the world was already going too fast.

FSTR’s a Good Read, and Relevant, Too

FSTR will be the easiest book to read on the entire list because it feels like you’re reading a blog. If it were written today, it would be as a blog and published as an afterthought. Its small chapters are focused lasers, then skip to the next meme. You can read them in just about any order - it’s encouraged.

While some of the individual observations seem overtaken by events, others take on an even more haunting timeliness (and timelessness) today. Much in the same way that our attention spans and expectations have radically quickened in the last century, so have the nature of our relationships. Back when it took actual time to reach, meet, converse, and get to know someone, there was a far different dynamic. You invested in a small circle of friends, and you valued them, because there was a finite pool of people in your potential sphere. Compatibility was a big issue.

Today - I can sign up for the Social Network du Jour, and be linked to a dozen people within a day. The expectations for such relationships are few, the threshold is low. Those signing up and binding electronically do so with the knowledge that others may render the entire affair disposable. Nothing gained, no more ventured. We can do this because massive pools of users allow us to reach the level of the trivial and superficial before asking any big questions. We can shift and realign allegiances literally issue by issue, and moment by moment.

The debate is already underway about Social Media Fatigue, or Overload, or Syndrome. In perhaps a harbinger of the times, instead of just naturally allowing a membership to die on the vine, Geoff tossed responsibility to the community: “Which networks should I ditch: Pownce, Twitter, or Jaiku?” It’s not enough that one or more must go - but Geoff is trying desperately to save time by disposing of one now! And he’s asking his loose web of blog visitors, feed subscribers, e-mail recipients, Twitterites, Powncers, Jaikutes, and their collective nets.

He seemed surprised when one Jaikute linked it deep enough in that community to violate the spirit of the original question. The deeper question is “How does it feel to be a disposable connection?” Sure, I’ve got Geoff’s e-mail and his cell number - but I don’t get Pownce behind the firewall at work. In this instance, the network is the thing - the people are just ingredients.

FSTR is a reminder that all of this is nothing new. Gleick’s prophetic vision of our obsession with slivers of instants is overshadowed by the recording and reportage of our past. The evidence that we’ve always been accelerating our time, each generation rocketing beyond the past. (Doctors during the early days of railroads predicted that rail travel would be impossible, as people would asphyxiate at speeds over 15 mph.)

As you pick and choose among the bright and shiny books on the list - dn’t gve shrt shrft t th 1 wtht vwls. It will likely save you a lot of time internalizing the philosophical change as we ponder the tomorrow’s burning question of the minute.

Ike Pigott has no business on a list of social media experts. He’s a former television news reporter who lives to help people communicate better and tell the story that matters. He works for the American Red Cross in Birmingham, Alabama, placing his squarely in the last profession and location where you’d expect to learn anything about anything. He blogs at Occam’s Razr, which is not nearly as colorful or well-read as the Buzz Bin. In his spare time, Ike teaches Kung Fu and writes self-deprecating bios in the third person.

Technorati Tags: Occam’s Razr, American Red Cross, Ike Piggott, FSTR

At a networking luncheon earlier this week, Susan Wranik of Susan I Wranik Associates, LLC gave a great presentation on ‘Are You Sabotaging Your Speaking Power.’ It was about how men and women convey information differently, which can have a big effect on business. Her point was that women often don’t say what they mean, use poor word choices, all of which contribute to the way we communicate.

She said as women, we ask, support, justify, and then justify again. Men, on the other hand, are a straight shooter, they tell it like it is.

I had to laugh at one of her examples of all of the things going on in a woman’s head at any given moment, that it’s hard for us, much less men, to keep up. Over and over she emphasized the notion that less is more. And that’s something we’ve been hearing a lot in the blogosphere today.

Do we say what we mean in our blog posts or do we dance, skirt and curtail our way around it. I looked at a couple of A-listers, with Susan’s words in my head.

• Seth Godin had an entry called ‘contagious’ yesterday that leaves very little room to question the directness in a man’s words.
• Arianna Huffington in a piece last week, while direct, still felt the need to explain that she finds “it more than a little curious” instead of saying, “it’s curious.”
• Steve Rubel is pretty direct in his delivery compared to Toby Bloomberg, who frequently peppers her words with details, descriptions, adjectives, synonyms.

Granted, some of it comes down to individual style, but Susan’s point was to make sure the point isn’t lost in the translation.

I’m guilty, too, though getting better. Sometimes I want to be superfluous, ostentatious, throw caution to the wind and explain to you in every little detail, so I’m absolutely positive that you’ll understand, no chance for misdirection, why something is the way it is.

The best way to do that is to tell it like it is.

Last night’s radio show was pretty hot, so give it a listen. We covered a lot of territory around the social networks craze and whether or not businesses can and should participate. And we got into some pretty fun future talk. Thank you very much, Wayne Hurlbert for having me on Blog Business Success. If you haven’t seen Wayne’s Blog Business World blog, check it out (Photo from a prior radio interview).

So our silly (and very contentious) poll has come to an end a little early, due to our Viget Labs optimization experience. The final tally?

• Jaiku - 199
• Twitter - 97
• Pownce - 90
• All - 30
• None - 17

This map, provided by LComm client FortiusOne’s GeoCommons service (featured on page 23 of July’s Business 2.0) shows the breakdown of US voters.

However, until Jaiku staffer Andrew Malach decided to blast the poll out on the Jaiku network on July 11th, Jaiku was overwhelmed 5-1 by Twitter. In a period of twelve hours the ratio dramatically changed to 5:2 in Jaiku’s favor. The poll paced that way for the remaining 14 days. Neither Twitter or Pownce corporate participated in this fashion.

Interestingly, the poll did register geographic data and a vast proportion of the Jaikuers were in Europe. Since the poll was meant for my readers and 78 percent of them are in the United States, we decided to show you the domestic breakdown of Twitter versus Pownce versus Jaiku voters.

Twitter

Pownce

Jaiku

What does these maps tell us? This can’t be described as an accurate sampling of U.S. users… only Buzz Bin readers. In the U.S. it was really close between Pownce and Twitter. Pownce may have edged out Twitter, but I’m not going to call that. We couldn’t map all of the votes so there could be a hanging chad.

This should not be a surprise as I have 4 x as many Pownce friends as Twitter “followers,” but Twitter absolutely dominates the marketplace. So I pulled from Pownce, and non Pownce readers favored Twitter. And that my readers really don’t like Jaiku that much. This validates the recent decision to continue using both Twitter and Pownce.

Also, you can see that my readers tend to be in the eastern seaboard of U.S. with some mid-west and Texan spice, plus a very strong San Francisco contingent. I think these results are representative of the pre July 11th Jaiku network announcement.

We also learned that online polls are silly, and cannot be looked at objectively. If the Buzz Bin ever runs another poll it will be very tongue in cheek. Thanks again to FortiusOne and GeoCommons for their support. You can access all of the data - US, Asia and Europe on GeoCommons under the keyword microblog.

Technorati Tags: Jaiku, Pownce, Twitter, FortiusOne, GeoCommons

From Wayne Hurlbert’s blog:

Blogger and social media expert Geoff Livingston of The Buzz Bin, and author of the forthcoming book on social media titled Now Is Gone, shares insights, with an insider’s first hand experience, of the power of the the new social media tools that can boost your company’s success, as my internet radio show guest on Blog Business Success; hosted live on Blog Talk Radio.

The show will run tonight at 8 EST. We’ll also post a link to the audio feed.

Lon Otremba, CEO of Access 360 Media, is a well-known interactive media pioneer in the Internet publishing, print, television and broadcast music industries. He’s a frequent commentator on interactive marketing and operating strategies, presenting at such events as the Forbes CFO Conference, The Economist Conference, and numerous Business Week, Internet World, and AdTech Conferences. He has also appeared on CNN and CNBC, and served as executive vice president of America Online’s Interactive Marketing Group.

Recently, he spoke at GLOBALCOMM, where we had a chance to chat a little. It was apparent that Lon’s deep experience in the online media environment has translated well for Access 360 Media, which leverages online, mobile, and brick and mortar media forms to creative dynamic communication campaigns targeted towards today’s youth market. Read on for a fascinating view of the social media revolutions, and don’t miss the Quicksilver case study in the middle!

BB: Much of Access 360 Media’s approach is new media oriented… Do you see this as a complete generational shift?

LO: I think it probably is. For example, if you were to walk into a CVS or Wal-Mart and see video programming on the TV sets, it’s usually not something that is very engaging, not to you, or me, and especially not to young adults. It’s strictly video wallpaper. Because of the shift, we’re working with clients to produce video programs that include, not just music videos, but also some branded content and an invitation to young adult shoppers to enter everything from a chance to win backstage passes to a concert to alerts on their mobile phone.

That kind of interaction and engagement inside a store is something that is quite natural for young adults, but isn’t normal for people outside that demographic. Many older customers may view that kind of content as intrusive. Yet if it’s done right, young adults don’t see it that way. They see it as relevant and engaging and kind of fun. At the same time, basic interactive-type stuff is generational.

I was at a high-level retail conference a couple months ago with some of the best store designers, architects, and store operational people in the industry. During a small demo on these “text to win”campaigns and how they work, I invited attendees to provide a text entry to win a 42-inch plasma screen that we were award to them. These are cutting edge architects, designers, retailers, and half the room needed help showing them how to send a text message.

That mobile medium, using it as a medium rather than simply a tool to place a phone call is, again, very natural for the young adult demographic, but not quite there yet for the older demographics. Still, that’s changing, too. The technology and carriers are making it a bit easier. Ease of use is fueling people outside the young adult demographic to participate in promotions and marketing that utilizes this technology. It’s still a challenge.

BB: What do you think about Facebook getting so hot? Do you see it as a fad because of them opening up their applications, or is it just getting started?

LO: It’s definitely not a fad. What Facebook did is kind of give in to the inevitable. I wasn’t there for this conversation, but I imagine 8, 10, 12 months ago that it went something like “Gee, what are we going to do about all of this?” I imagine they held off as long as they could before they made the decision to open up.

What you are seeing in the social networking space with Facebook is a technology that has found its space. Social networks have found their niche, however wide or narrow that may be, because they resonate with a demographic that has grown up trying to promote itself, recognize itself, and find people of like minds.

It’s a phenomena for a reason. Social networks strike a very responsive chord among people who want to live in the real world as well as a virtual one. If they choose to cross over from the virtual world into the real world, these social networks can enable them to do that.

As the technology improves, you’ll see more people microcasting, or the idea of smaller networks within big, broad social networks of real micro-interest. As smaller networks start taking hold, and sorry for being so commercial, you will see marketers start to take advantage of the social networking technologies. They will really begin to operate in more of a one-to-one realm. It’s a fascinating development and we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg, in my opinion.

BB: What do you think of the iPhone?

LO: The iPhone is cool technology. Visually, its killer. I love how you can rotate the screen, and the resolution is great on a big screen, they really hit on something terrific with that. Some of the technical limitations they talk about like battery life, how you can handle music with it, and a few other things worry me, and I don’t like virtual buttons, I like to press a real button.

But all that aside, it’s an indicator of how out of the box thinking on the handset is going to drive the use of real crossover technologies. A lot of the convergence that was talked about 5 or 6 years ago is really going to start to happen.

The iPhone is the start of another revolution in the way people utilize portable technology. It?s not just mobile phones anymore. Its ability, which I suspect will eventually come, to connect via WiFi for a phone call rather than a digital carrier is going to create a whole, new open environment in wireless. Whether that wireless is WiFi or on the carrier’s networks will be less of an issue than what you want, when do you want it, and how do you want to get it? The device will be the unifying factor in all of that.

BB: A lot of the talk now in content creation is the move from traditional ads towards unique types of campaigns that are customized towards customers. Could you cite a case study that you have been a part of in that sense?

LO: We worked with Quicksilver, which had always been a part of this huge surfing competition called Big Wave on the north shore of Hawaii. Big Wave attracts surfers from all over the world, and Quicksilver wanted to engage customers and members of the surfing community in their stores and get them to recognize that their particular brand, Quicksilver, was really a leader in the Big Wave event.

Access 360 Media suggested using mobile to interact with customers, current and prospective, bringing the Big Wave contest and mobile together. We developed a campaign that was in the stores and reminded people that they could text BigWave. When users did that they could be entered into an alert system that would provide information on wave heights, the surfers, what the contest conditions were, who was winning, and other types of interesting information. This was a great way to get participation from people that never in a million years could go to the north shore of Hawaii. They could feel a part of Big Wave through a simple connection using alert messages.

That proved to be a very successful campaign for Quicksilver as it created one-to-one relationships with interested customers. It also gave them the opportunity for further messaging to customers as long as they were willing to receive messages, and really showed Quicksilver that they could use alternative means to reach people in a unique and customized way.

You are going to start to see those are the types of campaigns more frequently. If you aren’t going to go with the one-to-many broadcast model, you have to start thinking of other ways to bring the connection closer to home. That?s going to mean more relevant marketing, which is the thing I get most excited about. The opportunity to create real relevance. And everyone knows that relevance is what turns advertising into something valuable instead of something annoying.

BB: What are your thoughts about the “Participation is Marketing” meme running around?

LO: One of the things I’ve learned being around media for a long time, in particular in creating a company around the young adult market, is that it’s got to be real. This demographic — probably more than any — can really spot a phony. A phony isn’t always a bad thing, but you don’t want to be dubbed as a phony when you are trying to be real.

If you’re a marketer and you put a spoof up on YouTube, that’s okay because they know you’re being phony but it’s with a purpose and there’s something authentic in that. But don’t try to put something up on YouTube and try to have it take hold as some kind of secret video. Or claim it’s truly viral when in fact it was created by your ad agency on Madison Avenue. That will be discovered and will hurt you more than help you.

Being part of a world itself, whatever it may be, surfing, or active sports, or fashion, or the world of MySpace alternative garage bands, whatever that world might, be authentic. That will help you.

One of the things, we learned that young adults are not opposed to commercialization. They like good deals, hearing about products they enjoy, and buying things just as much as older demographics, and they enter contests that we all thought were corny.

What’s different about this group is that they have an enormous number of messages coming at them, much more than ever before, 10 times as many in the past decade. They have to be more selective about what to let in, what’s real or not, and they don’t have as much time to deliberate over offers. They have learned to be much more discriminating.

When you are part of a world with a credible brand, it gives you a bit more brand permission than if you were coming at it in a “bull in a china shop” way. Being authentic is a key part of success.

BB: What are your thoughts on the Whole Foods scandal?

LO: Anybody can blog and say whatever they want, but I do think there is a separate standard that applies to CEOs of public companies. It?s at best disingenuous of the guy, and at most unethical. From what I’ve read its not illegal, but it’s not the right thing to do.

Part of it is, what are you trying to accomplish? If people reading that blog are trying to share information about that company and trade war stories and that kind of thing, that’s fine. But his intention certainly appears to be more than merely an entertaining conversation or casual fun, that he had an agenda and it backfired on him. I don’t think that’s a good idea and that this brouhaha is appropriate, frankly.

BB: A lot of people who have commented on the story point to it as a transparency issue. Do you have any thoughts on that?

LO: There has to be transparency, and I think that’s an important aspect of financial reporting when you’re dealing with public markets. Even a hint of something not being totally transparent or subterfuge, it just sends the wrong message. It’s not a good idea.

BB: Tell us a bit about your company.

LO: At Access 360 Media we decided to kind of build a media company from the ground up in order to engage quite possibly the toughest demographic to reach, but quite possibly the most valuable, in young adults. For general media purposes we define our audience as 14-34 year olds, but the “sweet spot” so to speak is 16-24.

This is a demographic that has some unique properties. While I’m not in the demographic, I have two teenage kids who are. It occurred to me, after being in the media business my entire career and seeing how they’ve grown up and what it takes to engage them; that the old, traditional media models just don’t apply to this demographic. This is a demographic that is highly sought but difficult to reach.

When I started my career 20 years ago, the model to start or reposition a brand was pretty straight forward. Today, if I had to launch a brand that was targeted at, say, my teenage kids or people in their 20s, it would be a tough challenge because it’s a different media landscape. It’s necessary to recognize the rules have changed.

What we created with Access 360 Media was building a media model, assembling the right media assets to engage brands with our audience in a relevant way. And engaging for this audience means not trying to shoehorn some old media model onto them. Accept the fact that young adults live in the real world as well as the virtual world, and in large measure the real world to them is a retail environment. We’ve lined up several retailers and have the ability to deliver media messaging within the retail environment of those retailers who specify in reaching young adults.

The second thing that platform allows us to do is bring the mobile platform in because virtually every young adult has a mobile phone. Increasingly, young adults no longer have land lines and strictly use their mobile phone. In addition, that phone is a link between what they are doing in the real world and in the virtual world. It’s a convenient way, via text messaging subscription, to tie-in the media message and extend it beyond the retail environment.

As the third component is the web itself. All of our retailers have websites where they try to sell things and create commerce and information. Align 360 Media extends the media message on behalf of brands who want to reach audiences beyond store walls and beyond the mobile platform into the web environment. We offer advertisers a program that really blends all three components. Oftentimes no two programs are alike; we think of fun, creative ideas and use our 360 Media platform to great effect with our brands.

Technorati Tags: Access 360 Media, Lon Otremba, Quicksilver, mobile, new media, social media, Buzz Bin, Whole Foods

Look under your kitchen sink, in your medicine cabinet or above your washing machine and chances are you’ll find a Procter & Gamble product. P&G produces over 300 of the best-known commercial products such as: Crest, Charmin, Bounty, Dawn, Swiffer, Tide, Downy, Duracell, Gillette, and the list goes on and on and on.

At a recent advertising trade conference, P&G’s marketing chief Jim Stengel called for a “mind-set shift that will make us relevant to today’s consumer’s; a mind-set shift from ‘telling and selling’ to building relationships….With the amount of information we have at our fingertips today, it makes it even more important to stay in touch, to get out there and talk to real people about real issues.”

This means a significant investment in Web 2.0 tools. According to a June article from Information Week, “P&G provides a study of how Enterprise 2.0 will take shape given the scope of its project and the way it draws on tools from startups as well as big-name vendors. In 2005, P&G laid plans for a Microsoft-centric collaboration initiative, with instant messaging, unified communications, and presence using Live Communications Server; Web conferencing with Live Meeting; and content management and collaboration via SharePoint. About 80,000 employees use Microsoft IM, and 20,000 have moved to Outlook. P&G has a few SharePoint sites running, and the major rollout begins in August.”

As with most things P&G touches, we can expect their rollout of integrated communications to be innovative and ahead of the curve. For now it seems most collaboration are being explored internally, with most company blogs, wikis, and the upcoming collaboration initiative residing on the company’s intranet.

Still, as consumers become more comfortable with integrating social networking into their online habits, P&G will find tools to help them provide feedback. The end result? Collaboration leads to innovation.

Related Links:

Volker Schubert - Aspects of Enterprise 2.0

Central Desktop - Beyond E-Mail at Procter & Gamble

Email Insider - Tap Women’s Social Networks with Email

Tomorrow you’ll notice a slightly reconfigured Buzz Bin. During New Media Nouveaux, both Toby Bloomberg of the Diva Marketing blog and I ended up in discussions with Viget Labs, the company that built Squidoo for Seth Godin. Our conversation evolved, and Viget Labs offered to provide web optimization services for both of our blogs.

We were both excited by this opportunity as we tend to be content creators who are light on technical savoire faire. Because there are so many bloggers out there who could benefit from a shared experience, we decided to blog about it with Viget’s blessing.

Some of the changes are pretty interesting. Design tweaks include adding in feedburner, moving up the Twitter blog, better calls-to-action, etc. Over the ensuing weeks we will implement other changes to the best of our ability. We will use a variety of metric to demonstrate progress (or lack there of). In a month or so, we’ll report the progress to date with the suggestions and of course, our blog traffic.

Thank you to the team at Viget Labs and Toby Bloomberg for participating in this open optimization exercise.