Happy PRobecast Milestone! Justin Martell, Caitlin Smith, Josh DeStefano, and Amanda King all joined me this week.

We  organized our discussion in a slightly different way today, in light of the story going around this week about employers asking for Facebook passwords. We’ll talk about privacy: what’s right and what crosses the line? How do we convey that information to those who will drive the trend? What if you actually provide your password – what happens to your friends’ or followers’ privacy?

We’ll discuss the Facebook passwords story, plus the app “Highlight”, which allows you to search for information about a person near you (location-based, of course).

In this episode of PRobecast, Liz O’Donnell, Amy Krigman, Caitlin Smith, and Amanda King joined me in talking about the virtues of SxSW versus a smaller, more local conference, newspapers putting their faith in paywalls, and of course, the Goldman Sachs op-ed in the New York Times.

SxSW: Cannes is still king: Like the Internet, SXSW provides a lot of content that may not be as high-quality as you’d like. There are close to 2500 panelists in less than 5 days, so there could be 60 panels happening at the same time slot, so even the pros end up with more misses than hits. However, SXSW earned its reputation through Twitter’s legendary 2007 launch, as well as Foursquare’s 2009 launch, where they began with 50 users and left with 5,000. Since then, people have waited for the next big startup. Do you think it would be worth attending? Do you know of any success stories for companies or individuals?

Papers put faith in paywalls: As more newspapers close the door on free access to their websites, some publishers are still waiting for paying customers to pour in. The numbers of readers signing up so far suggest that at many papers, “paywalls” aren’t about to reverse publishers’ deteriorating finances.  However, this story has tremendous implications for our careers at PR agencies. If agencies don’t evolve to fit the changing media landscape, we will not be as valuable as we once were. While I’m not a fan of paying for online content, I think many people are – are you?

Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs: We couldn’t not talk about the biggest news this week, the op-ed from the now-former Goldman Sachs employee. It’s a trend we’ve all seen for a while now; tell-alls for the purpose of attention. We all thought that while this op-ed wasn’t news (you mean banks want profit?!) it served to call out the whistleblower. We could be seeing a book deal, a big new job offer, etc., but this story was all about personal branding. Were you upset by this op-ed? What are your thoughts?

Now it’s time for the PRobecast PR Power Ranking – which is when we go around the room and pick the story that we think ranks the highest PR-wise – if it was the story itself, good data that was used, what’s getting the most pickup, was it a good PR move the company made, etc.

We had a tie this week, between the paywall story and SxSW. The paywall for newspapers goes to show the implications content has on our careers as PR people, and agencies must evolve to be able to produce, manage and distribute content effectively instead of relying on media relationships. As far as SxSW, we thought it has become too much of a behemoth to be able to provide value, and Amy found “unconferences” such as our own MassTLC’s Unconference to provide the most value for your time and money.

What do you think? Be the tiebreaker!

In this episode of PRobecast, we had a fantastic discussion with a large group of Topazers. Tony Sapienza, Liz O’Donnell, Justin Martell, Caitlin Smith, Josh DeStefano, and Amanda King joined me in talking about the new wave of social and brand interaction, active video games not doing their jobs, and Yahoo! Japan giving its management team a younger face.

It’s OK to be Antisocial – People are saying retweets are the new comments. Many social media experts insist that a two-way conversation between marketers and consumers is the whole point of social, and anything less than that is a reflection of outdated, broadcast-style thinking. But really – how many conversations do you engage in per day with the brands you follow? The thinking has evolved to reflect people follow brands because they want to hear from them in an efficient manner, and not necessarily talk back.

Active Video Games Don’t Keep Kids Moving – I know! You’re thinking, “That’s crazy. They play sports in active video games, dancing and all that! How could they not be more active?!” However, research has shown that in a normal home setting, kids with Wii or active game systems were no more active than kids whose thumbs got a workout. In laboratories, of course kids were more active, but it didn’t translate to real life. How does this bode for video game companies and marketing? What are some alternatives for them?

Yahoo! Japan gets a younger look – Yahoo Japan Corp. freshened up its management team, installing much younger executives as Chairman Masayoshi Son called for the company to stay competitive in the fast-moving Internet industry. Yahoo Japan, which operates the country’s most popular Internet portal and is one-third-owned by U.S. Internet giant Yahoo Inc., said Thursday that 44-year-old Manabu Miyasaka will become chief executive April 1.Mr. Miyasaka currently heads the company’s online shopping and auction services. Incumbent CEO Masahiro Inoue, 55, will step down from the board in June after an annual shareholders meeting. Seven other new executive officers between the ages of 35 and 44 also are slated to take up their positions in April, and Yahoo Japan said the average age of its executive suite will drop to 41 from 50 as the company looks to keep up with changes in the industry spurred by increased use of social media and smartphones. “Some of our rivals are young, and Internet users are also young,” said Mr. Son, 54, who is also chairman and CEO of Yahoo Japan’s biggest shareholder, mobile-telecommunications company Softbank Corp. Softbank owns 42% of Yahoo Japan and includes the latter’s earnings on its financial statements. “It’s important [for management] to stay young,” he said. Mr. Inoue, Yahoo Japan’s current CEO, said the company needs a younger leader who isn’t afraid to “destroy,” if necessary, what the company has built, as the proliferation of Internet-capable mobile gadgets such as smartphones changes the industry.

Now it’s time for the PRobecast PR Power Ranking – which is when we go around the room and pick the story that we think ranks the highest PR-wise – meaning any aspects of PR could be the reasoning behind the pick. Is it the story itself, good data that was used, what’s getting the most pickup, was it a good PR move the company made, etc.

We chose AdAge’s appropriately headlined story, It’s OK to be Antisocial. It’s the new wave of brand interaction, and it’s important for us at Topaz to discuss this to counsel our clients. We want to hear about our favorite brands through efficient channels like Facebook, but it’s impractical, on both the marketing and consumer ends, to expect a constant two-way conversation. It was nice for a while, but now we’re listening much more effectively!