It’s not about quantity, but the gold you can get from the chaos you create.

I joked during the Olympics that some of the duller (to me) sports could be “crossed up.” That is, have four or more athletes compete at once to create excitement, as in the snowboard cross and the ski cross events.

The excitement, of course, is in the chaos presented by the prospect of putting all these top athletes in a high-speed course at once, and the risk of collisions, wipeouts and controversy (of course, add short-track speedskating to the list).

Do… social media? We talk all the time about numbers and whether they matter. I have always been for having bigger networks rather than smaller, and these sports illustrate why. When you pile up the numbers, the chance of getting something interesting appears (forget increases- it appears, as in made possible where it wasn’t before). Think of this as a long-winded way of endorsing the idea of the “serendipity engine” that Chris Brogan likes to talk about. So, open the floodgates and invite the chaos– just have a plan on how to score the winners.

How can a social media “expert” make such a mistake?

David Meerman Scott, a very knowledgeable PR and social media person, “Re-Tweeted” the above-referenced promotion for the PRWeb service without checking for legitimacy. Does that make him any less knowledgeable? To the contrary, I think it should show that any company thinking about getting into social media should not be afraid of mistakes. We will all make them. There is too much going on, and mistakes will happen, we will get past them and move on (hopefully learning from it, or, in David’s case, even blogging about the lessons learned).

Twitter Phishing– Got Phished?

The recent Twitter phishing scam– in which people are tricked into giving logging into an ersatz Twitter application, which then takes over a user’s account, sending inane or even obscene direct messages, propagating the virus (or whatever it is) is not a new problem. But, it’s a fresh one. Got phished? Change your password immediately, and let people know you got hacked/phished/virused. Don’t worry about looking like a naive social media newbie (see previous item).

Single Point of Failure, Exhibit E

I say “exhibit E” because surely this is not the first or last. Free services for you blog an social networking come and go, but counting on any of them is a shaky proposition. One of my favorite PR/Marketing podcasts, “For Immediate Release,” was using the Sprout widget for embedding the podcast feed on blogs and sites (including letting anyone grab the code and put it on their site). Now, the service is going away (*cough* “sunsetting), leaving previous users in the lurch, while Sprout concentrates on growing its business with an enterprise product. Should I feel bad for FIR’s Shel and Neville? A little, but more to the point, it’s a lesson that any of these services we rely on could go away and affect our content and networks. I went through this with Utterli, which I used to use heavily on this blog, but I have been warned the service is in danger of disappearing, so have eased off it.

What to do? Build your own tools and host them, be redundant and back up everything multiple times so you can replace it, or design your content to be disposable. Whatever works for you (guess what I prefer).

Vimeo adding mobile support

As a premium account holder, I just think it’s cool that Vimeo is now transcoding content for mobile viewing. Before, I would have to upload a video onto YouTube as well (not a bad idea anyway) just so I could view it on my phone. Now I don’t have to, though as I just hinted I still might at times. But for private videos? One and done for Vimeo now (and yes, the originals are backed up).

This summary is for the benefit of blog subscribers who might not see some of the gr eat content over at MediaBullseye.com. Please visit there for my full article with details on how and why I made these changes. How has your social media usage? How will it change?

• I started using Facebook and Twitter as (mostly) distinct channels
• I gradually stopped using Utterli for blog posts
• I tried to use more video
• I surrendered to the geo-tagging craze

I frequently tire of the “xxx is dead” statements that are cavalierly thrown about the social Web. Here are a few, real and imagined, that caught my eye lately, and why they may not be true.

RSS is Dead: I understand that Steve Rubel is saying in his post, “As the Decade Closes, Has RSS Faded Too?” that he is migrating away from RSS readers (like Google Reader) to get his news feeds, and more to places like Twitter and other human-curated sources. The thing is, RSS is not only not dead, I would argue it’s immortal.

RSS has morphed from some sort of tool for end-users that nobody will ever understand in that context (despite the best efforts of some smart folks) to an underlying technology that drives a lot of the easier-to-understand interfaces– basically, any content site with a news feed.

As Shel Holtz said on Twitter: “Those who proclaim RSS dead are often those who herald the arrival of the real-time Web — largely RSS-driven.”

I would call RSS the “ghost in the machine” – but ghosts are dead, so…

Marketing is Dead: Granted, Forrester Research Senior Analyst Augie Ray admitted the title of his blog post was hyperbolic (and it worked), but there were some interesting points. No, I don’t think for a minute that marketing is dead in 2010, but Augie lays bare some of the big challenges we are already seeing. First point: Augie includes advertising, PR and other related practices under “marketing” and basically takes Advertising out back for a beating. More interesting is that companies have not figured out social media yet– no kidding, right?– but more specifically, the measurement metrics they are pursuing to date are not meaningful. So is 2010 the year marketing gets lost and can;t find its way back, or is the social media riddle solved by finding more effective metrics? What do you think?

The “Twitter will Never Make Money” Meme is Dead: Apparently, all Twitter had to do to get into the black was sign a lucrative search content deal with Google (and with Microsoft). How many clients have i had in the past who started out with content syndication of some sort as a means to “real” revenues? Rarely has it led to profits, but Twitter’s insane popularity made this possible. I also believe that it’s not the long-term revenue solution– that there’s more– so, that meme will live on as we continue to guess what Twitter’s next revenue scheme will be.

Blogging is Dead: Peter Kim did not actually say that in his post, “Some Thoughts on Blogging,” but he sets a good reminder that fading in frequency of blog posting- or in any medium– can make you forgotten or irrelevant fairly quickly. And Peter, I would love to see more regular posts from you.

Technorati Tags are Dead: Aw, sugar. I got nothing. However, I was actually asked by someone recently about the Technorati Authority score of this blog.  Can someone show me that Technorati retains relevance? I’d love it if it did, but I don’t really know.

BusinessWeek Editorial Layoffs; Just…Sad

Let’s pretend that Bloomberg has a master plan for a leaner, stronger, BusinessWeek after buying the troubled magazine recently. They probably do, right? It still boggled the mind to see the parade of high-profile pink slips given out this week: Stephen Baker, Heather Green, Jon Fine, Robert Hof, etc. (the RaceTalk* blog from RacePoint live-blogged the carnage for our…pleasure).  What struck me was that PR people felt genuinely bad. not that we shouldn’t, but one friend asked how we felt about the demise of the Industry Standard. I don’t remember PR people feeling so bad about those layoffs. Why? The Standard was notoriously hostile to PR people. businessWeek, besides being more practical, cuts stafff in a time where both flack and hacks alike share more conversations via social media. We know them a little better, and they are people to us, more so than in the past.

I wish every last one of them the best and have no doubt we will see big and interesting things soon.

Twitter to Users: Tell Everyone Where You Are: Yes, You in the Starbucks on Centre Street: You Too

Twitter has enabled geotagging. It’s interesting in that, in addition to other tools like FourSquare (of which I have become a big fan),  showing the world where you are is really coming into style. Cool? yes, for those activities whee you want it. Scary, too, though. Stalking should be a real concern, and I wonder if, as Don Tapscott wonders in his book “Grown Up Digital,” Generation Y-ers in particular don’t take enough care in protecting privacy. I’m curious to see how these tools will be used.

I’m Using Posterous

I have finally broken down and started using Posterous. No, I won’t use it for “Lifestreaming.” I have Twitter, Facebook, Blog, Friendfeed, etc, all making up a lifestream (except I still hate using that word). I will use it to post via mobile though, and from there distribute the content to the blog, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, etc. Stay tuned, I hope make it an effective use of content channels, though I don’t expect it to be a standalone blog in itself.

Yes Terry, you do slay you.

On the Internet, If You Are a Dog, Someone Will find Out

Wowee wow-wow stupid: person makes anonymous offensive remark on a newspaper newspaper Web site. Web site person tracks IP address and lets employer know (privacy violation? Maybe). IP address is at a school, and an employee posted the offending comment- from the school! Incredible. The employee resigned; with any luck there was a lesson learned.

Let’s Get Rid of the Term “Social Media D*****bag”

Ok, the term is “douchebag” but I try to keep this blog as PG-rated is I can. On the other hand, I’m not normally such a prude, and have even uttered the term myself, but it strikes me as misogynist, offensive, and pretty nauseating if you think about it. I even hear women proudly saying it. Maybe I am just a prude.

What would you think if we changed it to “social media colostomy bag?” I thought so. Some friends have offered alternatives- a personal favorite is “social media blackguard” from David Jones. Call me old-fashioned.

*Idle thought: As good as it is, is “RaceTalk” the most unfortunately-named PR blog, ever? Maybe “RaceBaiting” was taken. As Clarence would say, marinate.

This was originally published on the SHIFT Communications “Slice” Blog

Last week, I had the pleasure of attending the SIPA (Specialized Information Publishers Association) Marketing Conference in gorgeous Miami Beach, Florida (I know, the life of a PR flack is tough). I was asked to do a little work (the nerve) and present on social media news releases.

In our world- especially here at SHIFT, home of the Social Media Press Release Template, this can be an “old hat” subject (dirty secret; it’s not old hat– still much to do and learn). At this conference, I was very interested to present in front of a different crowd- which, to my surprise, was very eager to learn and came armed with questions. I was also pleased and flattered to find SIPA board members in the audience.

Below is the presentation I gave, with slides synced to audio. Special thanks to Todd Defren, without whom I would not have been able to sharpen my plagiarism skills to present on his and SHIFT’s behalf:

Why did I consider myself a “stranger” at this conference? SIPA is very ROI-focused, and PR is notoriously, well, not ROI-focused (more dirty secrets!). One basic presenting tenet that was proved at my session? Bring data. People were very interested in the ins and outs of press releases and new social media formats, but the takeaway that was re-broadcast at the conference? The statistics on social media release vs traditional release performance from Andrew Parker (see slide 18). I provided context and caveats, and this was not what I considered the lynch pin of the presentation, but numbers rule.

That was more true at the next day’s panel on “Social Media Success Stories,” with Hunter Boyle of Marketing Experiments and Matt Bailey of Sitelogic. Hunter and, particularly, Matt were quite at home from the analytical side, but I was able to answer a pointed question about the ROI of Twitter with two points: Dell Outlet’s $3 million Twitter account (thanks to Jay Berkowitz for serving up the exact number from the audience), and was able to recount revenues realized from Twitter networking in my PR work. Numbers from a PR guy? I astonished myself.

What are you doing to get outside your normal comfort zone (for me, that’s the “social media” crowd, such as the one at BlogWorld Expo)? And what do you need to present to them to make sure you, as a stranger, can get your message across?

Also: a quick thanks to Mike McKinney and the folks at Comhaus, who worked diligently during the SIPA Marketing Conference to capture the sessions on audio and/or video. I hope to have access to the panel soon, and will share a link to other sessions when it is available.

Notice I didn’t call it podcasting? I’m not sure I want to set up a special feed for video subscriptions, but I am thinking about adding more video to the mix.

The challenge: I’m itchy about the visual piece of video. I think the visual element- even a talking head– draws the eye and attention better than pure audio. My aesthetic sense, however, cries out for something to look at other than my ugly mug flapping my gums.

So, here is my first experiment in how I might present video more regularly. As you can see, I showed my surroundings more than me- a trick I used in my Pan-Mass Challenge training videos. I think I still have to figure out some technical aspects, but I will definitely do some more– with real content.

Blog Experiment 11-18-09 from Doug Haslam on Vimeo.

What do you think? What would make you watch video blog posts here?

• Well, It’s official- Social Media is For Narcissists. That’s according to a study called The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement produced by San Diego State University and Youth Pulse. As far as I can tell, the study is some sort of knock on Genreation Y being self-centered. What about Generation X? I was so  self-centered as a youth that I wanted my own label: I was too cool for “X.” Then again, I thought Generation Y was too cool for social networking sites. Maybe that’s just in the UK, in which case I sense a new Mod revival in which virtual beach riots will supplant conventional social networks.

• What else have we got? Ah, yes;  social media is an “egosystem” that is not about adding value. It is what you make of it, my friends. I’m coming to a point, but let me finish with a few more links.

• David Meerman Scott is more aligned with my way of thinking; people come to your blog (or Twitter or Facebook or, or, or…) to find out about YOU. Make sure your “about” page is loaded with good info. Yes, it’s about YOU. Even when it’s not. Hmm, I should probably check my about page.

• Mitch Joel asks, in a post called “You Self-Serving Pig,” “How do people build and develop their personal brands, if all we really want is content that is valuable to us and not self-promotional in any way, shape or form?”

Because, that’s not necessarily what we want. Mitch, I want to read about you because I want to learn from what you know.

• In my last link, Christopher Penn says “It’s not about you, but what you do.” To me, that’s still part of you. Chris illustrates his point by using Batman as an example– which actually illustrates my point.

The successful bloggers, influences, or, well, people, do provide value, and think of their readers/audience/friend. But the value they add is in writing about what they know best- themselves, or some part of themselves.

David Meerman Scott is an excellent self-promoter– in fact, that is quite often his topic, and he is among the first people I look to for such knowledge.

Mitch Joel is a brand in demand (and I don’t care if you hate the term “personal brand”). It’s his experience and his passing on that knowledge that makes him valuable.

Chris Penn dresses his extremely useful posts in the language of his life- and that includes comic books, World of Warcraft, and martial arts. He draws lessons from his own interests that we can all learn from.

Me? I can’t write about anything without my own viewpoint. Me, me, me! but that’s what i have to offer. Displaying a little ego (a little folks, it’s like Tabasco sauce you know) is necessary to share things you know. I don’t know a ton, but I want to start conversations, ask questions and share experiences. I can only do that from my own point of reference.

Please people, don’t stop writing about YOU. It’s what YOU know best. If you’re being obnoxious, we will avoid YOU. But I want to know what YOU know, and your blog (or what-have-you) does teach me. Keep it up, you narcissistic egomaniac pigs, you.

When marketing blogger and fellow social media Bostonian Susan Getgood alerted me to “blog With Integrity,” (www.blogwithintegrity.com), I was intrigued, for a few reasons;

• There has been a lot of talk among bloggers (especially but not limited to  “Mommy Bloggers”), about attempts by the government to regulate sponsored blog posts. an “Integrity” badge nominally serves to signify some sort of ethics compliance.
• The proposed “PR Blackout” is supposed to take place this week (Susan told me about Blog with Integrity a week ago).
• I inherently trust Susan- and by extension her three BwI co-founders- because of our friendship and the professional trust she has earned over the years. I ‘m happy to sniff out agendas in these types of efforts, and see none here.

As a PR person, I otherwise had reason to be concerned about the PR Blackout and Blog with Integrity. Is this an attack on the PR profession? A rejection of our outreach methods? As it turns out, no.

I listened to a podcast interview that Susan and BwI co-founder Liz Gumbinner did with For Immediate Release’s Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz (Liz blogs at Mom-101, by the way). I recommend listening to the podcast, it’s illuminating. What did I think about after listening, as a PR person?

• The PR Blackout idea, whether or not you think  it’s a good idea, is more an attempt at a cleansing exercise than a flip-off of PR.
• I often say that blogger relations is not a lot different from mainstream media relations. We need to “relate” and deal with writers/editors/bloggers as individual. Where that breaks down, however, is that most bloggers do not have training as journalists. That does not mean they aren’t ethical, but it does mean they may be naive in how to deal with PR promotions, and when they should disclose relationships with companies. You can say it’s common sense, but if you have spent two decades in journalism in PR, it’s hard to remember the days before you knew how to sort out the flacks from the genuine rep’s.
• (ADDED 8/13); I was reminded via a question from Eden Spodek- Susan made a great point in the podcast: the badge is not so much a signifier to PR people that the blogger is ethical, but a reminder for the bloggers about their own values. We don;t need badges, unless we do.

We in PR are defensive, used to getting attacked because of bad practices and the unethical few (this didn’t start with bloggers, by the way). It’s nice to think that a move to  “ethical” blogging, and even a break from PR, is not an attack no our industry, but a way to educate bloggers and rally the community behind ethics and common sense.

By the way, I signed the petition, and sport the “Blog with Integrity” badge. Not that I get pitched often (don’t get any ideas).

UDATE: Kara Brickman has a great summary of linkjs to PodCamp Boston 4 blog posts, photos and sessions,at http://karabrickman.com/2009/08/invasion-of-the-pod-tweeple/

Photo by CC Chapman

As one of many folks who have attended all four Boston PodCamps going back to 2006, it has been interesting to see this event grow- maybe mature is a better word.* From the excitement of a new group of people forming around new media and ideas, to the explosion of Year 2, to a more focused production in Year 3, to a recession-dodging (and yes, more mature) Year 4, I have not grown tired of the event, the concepts or the people. Surely that’s a danger in any long-time involvement, isn’t it?

(* How about this? After I drafted this, Amanda MacArthur came up with an excellent post with the same type of theme: “Social Media Grows Up”)

This year, I decided not to present. Perhaps in retrospect I could have grabbed a session or started an impromptu session as several others did. In the middle, I wondered if I was slipping myself in between the two groups who were clearly getting the most out of PodCamp: the new attendees who were soaking up everything (those people will always be there- every year- and are the heartbeat of PodCamp), and the fellow “old-timers” with more draw than I have, who were leading focused, passionate and entertaining sessions. Perhaps I suffered from the “what will I talk about/what will I learn” dilemma that I had overcome in the past.

Another factor this year was my interrupted Saturday. I was committed to taking my son to Fenway for the “Futures” minor league games, though that did turn into a miniature “PodCamp Boston West” with friends and social media fixtures Adam Cohen and fellow PodCamper Jeff Cutler also in attendance (plus, it was a blast).

Site of Impromptu PodCamp Session on Twitter and Professional Sporting Events

So what did I see and notice this year? As it turns out, several things:

• A torch has passed; Michelle Wolverton (see her PodCamp blog post here) took over from PodCamp co-founder Christopher Penn (who had a great post-PodCamp article, “Arguing Against Your Limitations“) as lead organizer and did a fantastic job, from running a smooth-as-can-be event to a planning phase that never took on an air of “will we get it done? panic (despite at least one “organizer” – me- not pulling his weight in this pre-event phase).
  

  Chel Pixie Gettin' it Done

• As mentioned above, there was great new blood and still a lot of out-of-towners. Helping out at the registration desk, I was sure to meet many of the attendees at least once.  I finally got to meet fellow Tewksbury native Ron Ploof, and Montreal’s own Adele McAlear, and longtime (but never met) friend Lynette Young, while getting to see more of folks like Chris Abraham and Kathryn Jones. That’s only a few of the many new people who made impressions on me, and no doubt will continue to, not to mention a number of old favorites, who don’t need to be told here how much I think of them (or at least will forgive me, eventually, for saving the space).
• One of my true regrets is not being around for the impromptu session on gender, and the excitement it seemed to create, as i took place while I was at the ballpark. See Rakiesha Chase’s blog post on the topic for a flavor  of what went down there.
• I did have an irrational fear that sessions would seem repetitive to me after four years. For one thing, that’s not a bad thing, as some concepts never die and need to be re-visited as more people become interested and these new people bring fresh perspectives. For another, fresh concepts never cease- I saw a lot of interest in measurement, a topic that will not get tired for a long time. I also finally stopped constantly using the “law of two feet” and actually sat still for  Renee Hopkins’ great session on social media in the B2B world, which really made me think about how we can continue to get some great innovators to embrace new communication tools further.

Renee, Speechin' & Preachin'

So, congratulations to Michelle and the rest of the organizers for another well-run event. There are a ton of PodCamps coming up shortly– perhaps there is one in your area?

*Gosh, I almost forgot– I was determined to get the high score at the pre-PodCamp bowling event, and after getting soundly thrashed for two games by Skip Bensley, I managed to do it with a personal best 219.

Scoble Declares Twankruptcy

Let’s set aside for a moment the fact that some words shouldn’t be “Twitterized with a “tw” in front; by “twankruptcy” I am talking to something akin to “RSS bankruptcy” or “inbox bankruptcy” where people xapp all their unread items because there are simply too many. Well, Robert Scoble did that to this 100,000-plus followers on Twitter this week.

Why? reading the stream became unworkable. too much spam, too much “who cares?” My numbers are nowhere near Scoble’s, but I can sympathize. I’m just not sure i want to drop the people I actually I care to follow and rebuild from scratch. It’s a choice- I didn’t see too much of an uproar, probably because Twitter went down the day he announced it.

That’s Right, Twitter Went down So Fast That the Fail Whale Slept Through It
Apparently, the denial-of-serivce of attack that brought down Twitter and affected Facebook, LiveJournal and other sites was politically motivated (no, I don’t understand it and won’t try). what was interesting to me was that frequent Twitter outages seemed to be a thing of the past- the last time I really had a problem I think I went to Jaiku or Pownce for my conversations. This time, people piled onto Facebook, and some to Friendfeed. Others enjoyed human company and fresh air.

If Stanley Bing knew what “PWNed” meant he could say he did it to Jeff Jarvis
In short, he took apart Jarvis’ argument that the “press release is dead” and that no journalists use them. Not so. And PR people, perhaps to Bing’s expected horror, are thanking him for coming to their defense.

Who Owns the Word Tweet-Up?
Seems some people were cheesed off that the Phoenix PRSA (Public Relations Society of America) chapter held a meeting for members that charged admission and called it a “Tweetup.” What? Outrage! Or, so what? “Tweetup” only signifies Twitter. People applying rules to things that have no rules need to step back a a bit. If there is a real problem here, maybe it’s some PRSA chapters could have more free events. But this made-up flapdoodle reeks of the old “it’s not a blog/yes it is” battles. Whatever.

The Wall Street Journal Has Changed Its Embargo Policy

According to paidcontent.org, “it will not accept embargoes for stories, but will take exclusives if handed to them.” I’m not sure that’s much different than the way intelligent PR people handled handled the Journal anyway, is it? Jeremy Pepper had (I think) a similar reaction. Hey, at least overreaction to non-news gives me material.