PR Thoughts

Les 100 premiers blogs...

Tiens.... Je ne connaissais pas.... Le classement Technorati des 100 premiers blogs. Intéressant d'analyser le type de blog qui se trouve en tête: + de 8200 blogs référents pour Boing Boing, puis 7400 blogs pour Davenetics, et Instapundit en 3è position à 7212 blogs....

Zut, je n'y suis pas... :o)

Meeting with the Big Blog Company

 I had my first meeting last friday with Jackie Danicki from the Big Blog Company, one of the first ( and certainly the first) european consultancy specialised and exclusively focused on blogging. I've been already in contact with Jackie since few weeks as she is also a member of the CEO Bloggers'Club, sharing with other members of the club her expertise on the blogosphere.

We had a very exciting meeting talking about blogging of course but also about our respective markets and the issues we are facing in our countries when trying to educating companies on blogging. I thought UK was far in advance compare to France and surprisingly Jackie told me french people seemed to be earliest adopters than UK one...

Elizabeth Albrycht from Corporate PR was also attending and brought us her view and expertise on those issues from a US perspective, as she is involved in blogging since few years already.

I love this kind of meetings when such exciting and new trends are shared between people coming from different countries, with different culture... There are always lots of benefits coming out from those meeetings.

I love their mascotte !

Un très bel article dans L'Expansion du mois de novembre

Bravo et merci à Nicolas Reynaud pour son très bon article "J'ai attrapé le virus du blog" dans l'Expansion ce mois-ci, qui fait une belle place au CEO Bloggers' Club et transcris des témoignages de chefs d'entreprise bloggers... ainsi que certains échanges que Nicolas et moi avons eu. Je vais essayer d'obtenir l'autorisation du Groupe Express - Expansion pour avoir le droit de le publier ici.

A suivre...

MAJ 19/11:  Ca y est, l'article est en ligne sur le site de l'Expansion !

Instructors for NewComm Forum

The following PR blogging stars will be joining us as session instructors at the upcoming NewComm Forum 2005 in the US and Europe:

Constantin Basturea of PR Meets the WWW (US)
Robb Hecht of PR Machine (US)
Neville Hobson of NevOn (US and Europe)
Alice Marshall of TechnoFlak (US)
Tom Murphy of PR Opinions (Europe)
Jeremy Pepper of POP!PR (US)
Matthew Podboy of Active Voice (US)
Octavio Rojas of Blog de Octavio Isaac Rojas Orduna (Europe)

This event is an unmatched opportunity to learn about corporate blogging, in-person, from the most experienced and respected PR bloggers in the world. We'll have information up on how to register soon.

Thanks to all of those who have said they'd come. We expect to be adding names to that list over the coming days.

PR Pro can't ignore blogging

I've been recently confronted to the power of blogging two times, just at the time of majors announcement for two of my clients. Would I have been an old fashioned PR, I wouldn't have been able to react quickly or even to understand what happened...

Here are the facts. First case: EMC to announce the acquisition of Dantz, editor of the very well-known Retrospect backup software, for a little bit less than 50 millions $. This happened few days ago. At the time of the final negociations, in the deepest secret of both companies, the rumor poped up on Slashdot.... Pure nightmare.... Both marketing department were working on the final release, and the information came on the blogosphere first..... Then through Europe on online vertical media. Thankfully, I had a PubSub on Dantz then I saw what happened the same day, few hours after Slashdot gave the information. I was able to ring the bell, and as I am the only PR blogger of Dantz between all the world wide PR agencies, I've been the first to inform the VP marketing that it was now urgent to announce the result of the deal to the world.

If I wouldn't have been blogging, I would never have had a PubSub feed and even had any idea of how many people are reading Slashdot....

Second case : Six Apart to announce they've been raising 10 millions $.... We were waiting in Paris for the release to pop up on Mena's Corner which would give us the green light to send out the release in France.... And the rumor arrived just few hours before from a blogger of the Sillicon Valley, not with exact informations as 5 millions raising were announced, but it obliged us to hurry and to get back controle on the information... We posted a note with the exact information, added a link on Mena's Corner to give additional information and by this way give access to all official existing news. More than that perhaps might be to work on a daily basis with such a influent blogger as Loïc Le Meur, who has something like 400 incoming links and 5 000 visitors a week.... and who loves to hide official news between two posts.... This is a real challenge !

We are today in a world of transparency, where any news comes to the awareness of everyone who's seeeking it.... The blogosphere is in the same time our best friend and our worst enemy. That's why no one involved in communication should dare ignoring blogging.

A new spin on blogging

Trevor Cook from Corporate Engagement published an article he wrote for the October / November edition of the Walkley Magazine (a publication of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance which covers journalists, pr professionals, actors etc)

Quote:

In my view, the real long-term usefulness of blogs for public relations is as a way of getting information into the public arena without having to go through the media gateway.

This article is definitely a must read !

Trevor is the initiator of the internationaly well-known Global PR Blog Week 1.0. "The site and the accompanying wiki are some of the best resources available to anyone interested in the contemporary practice and future of the PR profession", says Trevor in this article, and he is so right !

Via Active Voice

Coming Soon: Blog Conference for PR/Marcom Professionals – New Communications Forum 2005

If you are considering starting a corporate blog, want to learn how to maximize your current blog, or simply want to learn more about how blogging and other new communications tools such as wikis and RSS newsfeeds are becoming crucial tools for your communications toolkit, we’ve got a conference for you.

There is growing demand for a conference on corporate blogging, as is evidenced by the PRSA's recently realization and last-minute addition of a session on blogging at its annual conference. While one-time webinars and sole conference sessions are important steps, they simply do not provide enough in-depth education on the strategic issues and successful tactical implementation of these new communications tools.

So, Elizabeth and I decided to launch a full, robust conference specifically designed by and for PR and marketing communications professionals to address this need. In the coming days, you will be hearing a lot more from us about this conference and how to register. A few points: New Communications Forum 2005 will be held in two venues within weeks of each other. NewComm Forum Americas West 2005 will be held in the US near Silicon Valley in late January, and NewComm Forum Europe 2005 will be held in early February in Paris, France.

New Communications Forum 2005 will consist of an in-depth, two-day intensive workshop for senior communications professionals, taught by experienced PR and marketing professionals, who are also successful bloggers. The event will also feature practitioner panels, keynote addresses, and a hands-on demo area. Our goal is for attendees to leave the conference confident they can not only start blogging immediately, but also convince their corporations and/or clients that they should blog as well.

Some of our blog buddies may have already heard from us, with our request for them to be instructors or panelists. If you haven’t heard from us yet, you probably will soon. Or just drop us a line nominating yourself.

If you are interested in being notified when we officially launch the event, please add your name and email address to the comments below or email us. Of course, we’ll be announcing it here first!

In a world of increasing transparency, PR and marketing people need to understand the potential of new communication tools like blogs, wikis, and RSS feeds, even if they aren’t a practicing blogger themselves, as it is affecting the overall world of media and journalism. This will be a great opportunity to gain that foundational knowledge.

Stay tuned!

BusinessWeek Online offre des flux RSS

BusinessWeek vient de lancer 7 flux RSS pour nous permettre de suivre en temps réel leurs actualités.

Constantin Basturea met à notre disposition un agrégateur unique de ces flux pour n'avoir qu'un seul flux global à souscrire plutôt que les sept un à un...

Thanks Constantin !

Gmail invitation

I've got 5 Gmail invitations, who would like one ? Just tell me. Below, the new features:

Some features we know you've wanted (and one we should have had all along):

• Gmail Notifier
  Want to know if you've got new mail? Let us do the checking so you don't have to. Find out when new messages arrive, and even see their subjects, senders and snippets, all without having to open a web browser.

• Search your contacts
  With the new and improved Contacts list, search for a contact as easily as you would a message in Gmail. Add notes and phone numbers. View messages directly from the Contacts list. Stay in touch with the people in your life more easily than ever before.

• Automatic forwarding to another email account
  We're testing a new feature that lets you forward new incoming messages to any email account you want. It's free during the test and you can set it up in seconds. Even set up filters to forward only some of your messages. It's your mail. Get it the way you want it.

• And finally... Save Drafts!
  For when you can't find the right words, save drafts and find them later.
  

Update 05 Nov. : sorry, all invitations are left since 2 weeks already.

Blogs de Présidentiables

A voir, pour comparer et étudier le phénomène, les blogs des deux candidats aux élections présidentielles américaines:

John Kerry et George W. Bush