In these dog days of August, Tim Allik and Rob Capra take a shot at being PR contrarians in this special edition of PRobecast, with the latest, greatest Top Ten (Socal Media) PR Myths:

1. Social media is new
2. The phone is worthless
3. Email is useless
4. Print outlets are dead and insignificant
5. The press release doesn’t matter
6. Live tweeting at conferences is worthwhile
7. Social media increases PR productivity
8. The ability to multi-task is key to any PR project
9. CEOs typically give great media interviews
10. Reporters hate PR flaks more than ever

Don’t agree? Write a comment and let us know why!

Technorati Tags: PR, PRobecast, public relations, Rob Capra, Social Media, Tim Allik, Topaz Partners, Twitter

This week on PRobecast, Tim Allik, Wendie Larkin, and Glen Zimmerman discuss:

How uncool is Cuil? The new search engine launched with the best buzz money could buy - but landed with a thud. The PR lesson learned? Terrific PR just isn't enough without a great product or service behind it.

Corporate blog relations. Friday's New York Times covers the trials and tribulations of blogger Brandon Dilbeck, who gripes about Comcast on his blog - and then complains when the company emails him to ask if they can do anything to work things out. Earth to Brandon, you can't have it both ways. If you want to keep your thoughts to yourself keep a personal diary. Otherwise, prepare to engage. And kudos to Comcast for reaching out.

Help a Reporter Out. At www.helpareporter.com, Peter Shankman's effort to distribute reporters' request for sources is taking the PR world by storm, with 20,000 subscribers to the service in just a few months. Are the folks at Profnet quaking in their boots? They probably should be, because HARO is free. D'oh! Our panelists float and consider a related idea: Could PR folks create a aggregated list of PR pitches (protecting embargoes and anonymity, of course) that could then be distributed on a regular basis to reporters? What do you think?

Is the press release dead? Before you start yawning in the face of the age-old question, consider our experience at Topaz with our client Language Weaver, a leader in statistical machine translation. We distributed a press release that linked to a podcast with one of the company's founders. The release itself was interesting enough for famed inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil to link to it from his website, www.kurzweilai.net. The one element missing from this equation? A reporter.

You can subscribe to PRobecast via Podcast Ready —

or iTunes.

Or simply use the RSS link here:

You can send your feedback to probecast@topazpartners.com. You can also call your feedback into 781-404-2409. Or leave a comment on our blog!

PRobecast’s opening music is “Junk In A” by Pat Zelenka, available on the Podsafe Music Network. Our closing music is “Chase Me On A Bike” composed by our own Rob Capra.

Have a listen to some of our past PRobecasts…

Technorati Tags: Blogging, Cuil, Help a Reporter Out, New York Times, PRobecast, Profnet, Ray Kurzweil, Topaz Partners

Just a few days after Topaz Partners celebrated its sixth year of business, our blog is celebrating its fourth year! Our first post, like most first posts, wasn’t terribly profound, but it did try to help folks understand the whole RSS idea back when most PR agencies were blissfully unaware of the coming social media revolution / evolution / utopia / anarchy.

To give credit where credit is due, Todd Defren beat us on the Boston PR blogging scene by a month. But since that inauspicious start, Topaz Partners has continued to be one of the most innovative PR firms in the region when it comes to social media, if I may say so myself.

This is the blog that helped launch dozens of other blogs, from personal blogs for our employees to CEO and corporate blogs for our clients. Our track record of client blog abandonment remains strong, based on some napkin math I did last night–we’re hitting more than .500, which is pretty impressive given the overall drop in corporate blogging we’re seeing.

UPDATE: AN Hosting and Midphase are crediting me a whole month for being down for most of the day today–THE DAY THIS BLOG IS SUPPOSED TO BE CELEBRATING ITS 4TH ANNIVERSARY! Wow, thanks, guys.

Technorati Tags: anniversary, blog, Blogging, blogiversary, blogs, PR, PR blogs, prblogs, socialmedia

BtoB Online ran a story today by Carol Krol on Forrester’s just-released report that says B2B marketers aren’t as blogging as much as they used to. Have you noticed a similiar trend? Is it due to the likely reasons Forrester cited? Are you blogging less these days? Are your clients? The curious minds at Tech PR Gems want to know. We’re making a conscientious effort to blog MORE since we re-launched the site, but we do find that microblogging has taken some of the urgency out of it.

Well, at least we blogged about this…

Technorati Tags: B2B, B2B Blogging, bloggers, Blogging, Forrester, Forrester Research

Seems like we have a loyal following at Tech PR Gems, more than we thought we did apparently. Not even one hour ago, my fellow blogger Tim stopped by my desk and asked, “Have you received any PR pitches lately?”

Me, “No, why?”

Him, “Because we are listed in Cision’s Media Directory.”

Me, “Are you KIDDING me?”

Being the savvy person I am I looked and was amazed, not only is Tim listed, along with me, but Todd is as well. I couldn’t stop laughing. I still can’t.

How long will it be before we get pitched and feel like reporters? Anyone want to bet?

It’s happened again; a blogger has published a “PR Spammer” blacklist. This time the plaintiff is Gina Trapani of the very popular Lifehacker web site. She links to a blog post by Matt Haughey sporting a similar complaint.

Of course, we remember the similar rant and blockage from Wired’s Chris Anderson last year. So what does this prove (aside from the fact that Topaz was on neither list–hah)? What can bloggers do?

1. They can block entire email domains, like Gina suggests. That’s blunt-object surgery and doesn’t really work except to raise awareness and offend the entire PR industry, including the majority of good-actors (I know, boo-hoo). Be prepared to get tons of GMail pitches then. Effectiveness: zero.
2. They can call out individuals. I don;t see that often except in egregious cases, so let’s assume that never gets abused. Very effective, then. Shames the egregiously bad-actor and schools the rest of us.
3. They can post a “don’t pitch me” policy. A site like Lifehacker is going to get pitched anyway, but PR people can’t say they weren’t warned. On the other hand, a high-profile site is going to get pitched no matter what. It’s the price of success. Effectiveness: marginal to middling
4. They can engage in open, honest dialogue about how they like to be pitched and with what. The social networking channels are great for instant feedback, and people like Marshall Kirkpatrick of ReadWriteWeb use those channels very well. Even Brian Morrissey of AdWeek’s Twitter stream poking fun at ridiculous PR practices can be viewed as constructive, or at least funny. Effectiveness: very

What can we do as PR people? Listen to your conscience, follow best practices– which sometimes work against the reporter’s preferences. when there are exceptions to the pitching “rules,” you will know. Another thing is for the PR bloggers to open the dialogue themselves, such as here and in posts by Brian Solis and Todd Defren.

What can you add to the dialogue here? What– as a PR person OR as a blogger– can you add to this discussion?

[UPDATE FROM Todd V. - Monday 12 May]
I’d post this in comments but I can’t post images there.

Way back in 2005, MobHappy came up with the red light, green light yellow light PR pitch system. What about some variation of this?

Just back from a very enjoyable social media breakfast - Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and friends) - in Cambridge, MA hosted by Bryan Person and Jeff Pulver. Once I woke up, I liked real-time social tagging each other with post-it notes and stickers - besides, I enjoyed the conversations and food. It’s a fun way to flatter friends or meet new people (I like that) and to put a name to a blogger/Twitter follower/favorite/social media guru, but it all raised an issue I’ve been mulling as I now revive my Topaz blogging. The process of networking (and social tagging) does feel a bit forced some times and when considered within some folks’ online lives, makes me think one’s ego is a little too super ;).

Breaking down social barriers is a great idea. Social media groups, networks and Tweetups do a superb job of this. I’ve seen that you get out of social media what you put in (I’ve been known to be very “social” at SNCR’s NewComm Forum and SMC-Boston events), but I’m still struck by how important some social media folks profess to be or (more likely) are referred to by others in a room or social network. OK, it sounds harsh, but when did marketers, PR folks and vendor reps become their own personal brand/tagline outside of their résumé and job interviews?

I see this personal promotion in conversations, Twitter/Facebook status updates, podcasting, blogging and a seeming obsession with social media tools and shared experiences. Again not a bad thing, but I think we need to remember that there is balance in who and what we represent and importantly who we work for (and get paid by - even if we’re sole practitioners/consultants).

For example in the PR world, I sometimes worry that a Twitter tweet might infuriate a journalist or tip off another agency to a new business target or even detail that you’re having trouble with a current client/co-worker or simply wasting a lot of time. At its most extreme, a Twitter note or Facebook update can tell your “friends” that you will be out of town at a conference until Friday — REPLY @: would you be so kind to leave a key to your condo under the doormat so I don’t break a window?

OK, I’m talking extremes, but I do think it is important to remember your secondary branding and motivations (after the priorities of looking out for family, friends and self). These secondary, but critical, motivations should include your employer, future employers, clients, peers and school (if you’re a young’n). It might even change the openness and direction of your social media interactions for the better. I love the Social Media Club ethos of “if you get it, share it” - I just suggest we remember who’s in the audience and how our messages are being interpreted.

Food for thought as we contemplate if my karma is running over your figurative dogma?

There is a blogger over at Wired who asks that you not send him any news. Bruce Sterling rather viciously and ineffectively called out a PR executive named Susan Wise for committing the sin of sharing some information with him.

On his Wired blog, Beyond the Beyond, Sterling wrote a post titled “I’m Suffering An Evil Tidal Wave of Blogsurfing Public Relations Spam,” and presented Wise’s thoughtful, reasoned pitch as evidence.

In her pitch, Wise responded to an earlier post by Sterling about the recent severing of Internet cables that affected a number of countries in the Middle East. She pointed out that thanks to the virtual networks, automatic rerouting and other services supplied by her client Virtela, Virtela’s customers in the region were unaffected by widespread Internet outages.

The irony here is that while Sterling’s original post about the cable outages was strictly a cut-and-paste job that consisted entirely of information from other published sources, Wise’s pitch included information that was both novel and interesting.

We are all dealing with information overload now, most especially journalists. Good reporters use automated processes of filtering their email so they stay organized and don’t get distracted. But reporters and bloggers presumably post their email addresses on their websites for a reason: to receive pertinent, relevant information that might make for a good story, one that hasn’t already been reported elsewhere.

In no way is Bruce Sterling’s rant analogous to Wired Editor In Chief Chris Anderson’s beef of a few months ago, when Anderson rightfully called out PR people for pitching him inappropriately and without bothering to read his prior reporting (I agreed with Chris at the time and said so on this blog).

In this case, the PR executive bothered to read Sterling’s post about the cable outages and wrote her pitch based on what he posted. Sterling is not editor in chief of Wire and presumably has a beat that demands more than cutting and pasting information that has been previously reported elsewhere.

An article in the February 2008 issue of the ironically-named Fast Company places Columbia University Professor (and now Yahoo! employee) Duncan Watts as Chief Debunker of the Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell’s popular book and idea about the influence of, well, influencers (or, as Gladwell classifies them, Mavens, Connectors and Salesmen).

Online PR has largely grabbed on to the fact that, rather than worrying about every little blogger out there, if we just find the “New Influencers,” (let’s connect a few more dots while we’re at it. Does this link make me a Connector or a Salesman?).

Viral? Don’t Make Me Sick*
Duncan Watts performed experiments in an attempt to debunk the idea that “influentials” spread memes, but that the key to making word, whether it is news, an idea, a video or what have you, go “viral,” is to, as the article, puts it, “harness the pass-around power of everyday people–and ignore Influentials altogether.”

My big problem with this whole effort- aside from the fact that word about Watts’ theories is spreading in, um, Influential publications like Fast Company. Or, that I could bet that people are flocking to his blog to lap up whatever pronouncements he is making on the non-influence of the Influentials. Well, wait; I actually couldn’t find a blog, so we’ll have to settle for buying his newly-Influential book from the eminently Influential Amazon.com.

I firmly believe that people like to be told what to do, or what’s cool, even if they decide for themselves whether to pass on a meme’s “coolness.” And I also believe that as word spreads, lots of people hang on to a smaller group of, yes “Influentials” who become the tastemakers– or the “A-Listers”– or whatever you want to call them.

Where Watts scores is in the fact that online Influentials are vaguely defined. Who are these people and how do they influence? The everyday people mentioned above? Aren’t they influencers? And blogs and other social media are giving more and more people a voice and a potential audience.

Where he also scores is I have seen, in past clients trying to drive Web traffic, the unpredictability of who exactly ends up driving the traffic. As often as not, a blogger I never heard of drives more traffic than a Robert Scoble. that, however, does not mean we should ignore the acknowledged Influentials and the influence, indirect at times, they likely still wield. It’s just that you can’t stop there.

Influentials aren’t going away, but influence is more distributed, and it is moving. That’s the boig difference today. Some of the “everyday people” are more influential than others, and it is different for every publicity project. That’s the real challenge today.

On a lighter note, I mused recently in a “Social Media Top 5″ post about who thinks they are influencers but aren’t, and unlikely sources of influence.

* Let’s forget for now that The Tipping Point was inspired by the AIDS epidemic, and that the concept of “viral” marketing is literally akin to the spread of deadly epidemics. Maybe Christopher Penn is wrong…

Last year, one of the technology media events of the year was Engadget’s live-blogging of Steve Jobs’ MacWorld keynote, in which he introduced the iPhone. Others may have live-blogged, but everyone I talked to mentioned Engadget as their source. What a coup!

This year, I thought I would track a few sources simultaneously, and see how the live coverage compared. They were:

• Engadget: Last year’s gold standard. Would they repeat?
• Gizmodo: Coming off their embarrassing prank at CES, how would they fare?
• TechCrunch: The trifecta, completed
• MacWorld: Would love to see a Mac-focused publication weigh in live.
• Twitter.com/macrumors: Twitter has been a great source of conference-blogging, and it would be interesting to see how coverage from various Twitterers, including Mac Rumors, compared.
• UPDATE: A lot of folks were gushing about the Mac Rumors Live coverage after the fact, but I couldn’t get on the site in the half hour prior to the keynote, so assumed they were concentrating on Twitter. Too bad

I thought I would capture my thoughts live, and package them up here:

11:45-11:55 a.m.

• Twitter.com/macrumors: did a “30 minute” countdown, then nothing for a while
• MacWorld.com: announced they would start at Noon ET. Jason Snell reporting
• Engadget: Running updates started at 11am ET, from when they got in line– lots of minutiae about getting past security, etc. Ryan Block reporting.
• TechCrunch: starting at noon ET, with Duncan Riley.
• Gizmodo: Jason Chen’s updates also started early, including more colorful descriptions of what is going on, what food they got (OJ and blueberry scones!, etc,). Brian Lam is also reporting.

11:55-11:59 a.m. ET

“We’re in!” posts– Engadget beats Gizmodo by 4 minutes, if the time stamps are in sync. Differing reports on what music is playing: Engadget says “New Order: Gizmodo hears the same ol’ “Coldplay.” No Feist?

12:02 p.m. ET Gizmodo has better photos than Engadget so far, but Engadget’s photos last year were great, so this ain;t over yet. Still radio silence from the rest of the gang. Wouldn’t it be funny if no one could get an AT&T/EDGE signal?

“There’s something in the air.” Can they please play the Thunderclap Newman song? Even the Tom Petty version will do.

12:10 p.m. ET

Twitter crashing. It figures. Thanks for nothing.

Gizmodo: Jason Chen asks readers if they prefer this or having the keynote during CES like last year.
MacWorld: Posts began at 12:03/12:04, comments on getting in and music. Welcome to the party!
TechCrunch: Still MIA, though “sit tight” message found below in comments. That’s not where we’re looking, folks!

12:13 p.m ET
Gizmodo is first to confirm they played the Feist song form the iPod ads.
TechCrunch: There you are Mr. Riley! confirming lights going down for keynote

12:14 p.m. ET

• Twitter.com/macrumors: Twitter is dead right now
• MacWorld.com: Slow to update
• Engadget: Behind Gizmodo
• TechCrunch: Fianlyly in the game,
• Gizmodo: Still seems to be leading the pack, w/ post of new Mac/PC ad and beginning pof keynote

12:15 p.m. - 12:30 p.m. ET

• Twitter.com/macrumors: still dead
• MacWorld.com: The only site that has the oldest part of the post first, so you have to scroll down. Plus, a bit slower than TechCrunch
• Engadget: Wow, site failed to load on me for a sec, then back with the news. No new pictures so far. Then, blank again. I may be testing our network here, but the other sites are working (except Twitter).
• TechCrunch: All business, but quick. Seems to be getting updates as quickly or quicker than the others
• Gizmodo: is really delivering with the photos– up fast, and looking good. A little slower to load, but only slightly and worth it

12:30-12:45 p.m. ET

• Twitter.com/macrumors: Still dead
• MacWorld.com: Still have an issue with having to scroll down, but they did seem to be keeping up for a while, then the site stopped loading.
• Engadget: Still down. Weird. Oops, back up @ 12:33 ET. Guess they better stay away from photos. Ryan jumps into commentary as well, howling that iPod Touch users will have to pay $20 for nifty upgrades. at 12:42, a post apologizing for the crashes, and noting they have “10x traffic” of last year’s keynote. Wondering how the traffic stacks up vs. the other sites.
• TechCrunch: Hey, pictures! Also adding commentary not just news. With the loading problems the other sites are having, TechCrunch is holding up much better at this point. In fact, I saw the “iTunes movie rentals” news first at TC.
• Gizmodo: Site seemed to hiccup for a second, then- bam! More photos! Actually, all the sites seem to be under a burden. And then more photos. Did I mention Gizmodo is killing with the photos, as Engadget did last year?

12:45-1:00 p.m. ET

• Twitter.com/macrumors: Got a glimpse of MacRumors updates. just a couple, and then lost Twitter again.
• MacWorld.com: Finally came back: still hate to scroll, but inttersting that they added commentary in red, so it is easy to pick out from the news. Very journalist-y
• Engadget: Error message on the site– still having problems. But, when back up, still with more commentary, which I am starting to get hungry for. I should add that Engadget is the only one of these sites where comments are open, that I can see. Definitely closed on TechCrunch.
• TechCrunch: Still the fastest going into this time slot, but Engadget and Gizmodo caught up or passed, depending on when I looked.
• Gizmodo: Still going strong with the pictures. Also, tipped me off/reminded me that Fake Steve jobs was liveblogging. Doh! Ah, he was trying to Twitter and switched due to crashes. Or did he just give up? Figures.

1:00p.m.- on

• Twitter.com/macrumors: Welcome back! Let’s see if this lasts. Guess not.
• MacWorld.com: Still getting crushed
• Engadget: Site is loading more steadily, but not really giving an edge over the others.
• TechCrunch: “Crowd Cheers” for Apple TV update. TC slips in an Apple stock update. Nice touch (down 4.5% at the time, btw)
• Gizmodo: “Polite Applause” for Apple TV update. Hmm. More great pictures. “Vanilla envelope?”

Summary

Winner:

• Gizmodo: Their ability to get pictures up quickly and still keep up on the news was awesome. What I remember most about last year’s Engadget coverage was the pictures, so this will have a lasting effect on my memory.

Runners-Up:

• TechCrunch. Their late start (no pre-speech coverage) might have turned people off early, but they truned out to be nimble with the posts afterwards.
• Engadget: their commentary was sorely needed, and they had some good photos as well, but site crashes killed the experience. Was it the traffic? Perhaps they have that much more than everyone else, but still would be nice to avoid those issues.

Losers

• Twitter.com/macrumors: Actually, anyone who was on Tietter, including Fake Steve Jobs, was victimized by the site’s inability to stay up. Twitter completely melted down, reviving only for a few brief posts. Too bad, especially for mbile users. Plus, I was hoping to hear from my friend and frequent conference-Twitterer Len Edgerly.
• MacWorld.com: They seemed even with TechCrunch once the speech got started, but not placing the updated up top was a pain, and then the site just got completely buried and crashed. They did start to provide some commentary, but I would have liked to see more of their perspective. Oh, well.