The Intersection of Online and Offline

I’m doing a lot of thinking these days about measurement of the effectiveness of public relations programs.  We’re covering this in my class and my day job is, well, getting kicked around a bit of late.

I have long been a proponent of the premise that, in order to do good measurement, you need a “mashup” of tools.  You need to look at, of course, print, blogs, Web sites, message boards (especially in the world if finance), but measurement often lags behind the subject matter that it measures.

I’m coming late to the party, but ReadWriteWeb reported on the Twittermeter, a way to measure mentions in Twitter.  They state:

Enter Twittermeter. Twittermeter uses the Twitter API to scrape the site’s public feed and creates a database of every word sent over Twitter. Though database overages have forced the site to display only results for the past week, they have data since November 6th, 2007 totaling over 14.5 million words from 2.1 million status messages.

Twittermeter creates buzz graphs comparing words. For example, the graph below for the word “earthquake,” clearly shows a spike during the UK quake that took place earlier this week.”

Cool.  The challenge, for communicators, is now to add that to one big tent.  I am an unabashed fan of Custom Scoop, a platform that, while collecting information for thousands of print sites and blogs, also offers one of the opportunity to accept .xml feeds from other sites.  The more that you can measure under one big tent, the better. Tweetscan (or Twitter Search, whichever you call it) can also do it.

And while I am at it, measurement should not be about the tone or favorability ot articles, but of mentions of the company or issue that you are tracking.  Thanks to Katie Payne, I am now a disciple of “Measuring Public Relationships.”

Mark

I have gained semi-notoriety this week because of my online-based apology tour, having said stupid things, apologized and my idiocy was well-documented and forgiven on CareerDiva.net, the New York Times, and I even did an interview yesterday with the Washington Business Journal (no link yet because it will be a couple of weeks, but you can count on my self-promotional side to pimp that too).

I have a semi-foul mouth, which has been curbed only through my parenthood, but for those of you who have read this blog, you’ll note that when I become particularly exasperated by something that I think is inane, my usual response is:

“Jesus.”

Well, now I have either an outlet for that, or an e-portal which may just ensure my eternal damnation.  Tech Crunch reported recently on the launch of Gospelr,

…a microblogging platform for people who want to share thoughts, ideas, words of encouragement, prayer requests, daily scripture readings, and oh so much more.”

I am honestly not here to praise or condemn this, but one of the questions that I get asked frequently and was asked yesterday during the interview was “What is the next BIG THING?”  Some people B.S. (there’s that foul mouth again), their way through this, but my answer was simple:  Anyone who tells you what the NEXT BIG THING is is lying.

An example of this is the fact that Gospelr is based upon the Twitter platform and represents a segmentation of the Twitter audience.  A year ago, who predicted that Twitter would launch, crash (literally), an then crawl back into our waiting arms?  And what about that stupid whale?

I think that Gospelr represents the fact that microblogging has now become so intertwined with our lives, we’ll begin to see more and more platforms that are targeted towards a particular segment of the of the  population who share common interests.  Now THAT’S interesting.

I’ll avoid all other commentary as to minimize the flaming comments that are undoubtedly headed my way.

Mark

I wrote an article for Media Bullseye magazine last week in which, among other things, I used the phrase “you bet your bippy” and offered (without checking with them, of course), a free tour of Media Bullseye HQ for anyone who could trace the origins of the phrase).

BUT - the thrust of my article was a list of suggestions on how to convince the unwashed at work that Twitter can be valuable business tool.

My pals at Media Bullseye tell me that there has been quite a bit of commentary on the piece, so while I encourage you to visit Media Bullseye and read the whole article, here are the highlights of “How to Sell Twitter at Work::

1. Know what you are talking about. Before you try to sell Twitter, get your own account, follow people, interact, and know the different type of Twitter users.
2. Know how to translate a “micro blogging platform.” That’s your elevator speech. If you can’t explain Twitter in 30 seconds (probably the equivalent of 140 characters), you are dead in the water and will get the deer-in-the-headlights look at work.
3. Know that the lawyers will get involved. God bless all of you in communications roles who are not subject to legal approval, but most of us are.
4. Resist the impulse to make it all about you. People who regurgitate fluffy press releases are seen as hacks.
5. This is WAY old school, but in addition to the rest of the stuff that people never read in your signature line in your email (except POSSIBLY) your phone number, list your Twitter account name.
6. When you are looking to build an audience, ask questions. People love to give opinions and if you have a helpful user base, you can develop dialogue with people and get answers.
   
7. I mentioned this earlier, but if you use a Twitter account for business, do not mix personal stuff in.
   
8. Finally, understand, that like radio advertising, like TV advertising, like earned and paid media, it takes a lot of time and effort to build your brand.
   

So you bet your bippy that you can sell and make Twitter part of your communications enterprise.

Mark

The debate about the use of social media on Capitol Hill continues to rage, and in a fashion befitting a Washington, politically-fueled debate in an election year. I thought that it had reached its peak when Ted Stevens called the Internet “a series of tubes,” but I was wrong.

The New York Times chimed in yesterday with a piece “In House, Tweets Fly Over Web Plan.” This cannot be good. And it’s not, boys and girls. Here are some select quotes:

“I just learned the Dems are trying to censor Congressmen’s ability to use Twitter Qik YouTube Utterz etc — outrageous and I will fight them,” Representative John Culberson, Republican of Texas, wrote last Tuesday on his personal page on the online text-messaging site Twitter, where he posts a daily, rapid-fire log of his thoughts. Messages on Twitter are called tweets.”

“Before I could post a Tweet I would have to get approval of the twits that run the House!” And an hour later: “The Dems will do this unless the Internet community stops them.”

Uh oh.

“Leadership has told me personally that they will next focus on limiting our access to text, blogs, and other social media outlets on the Internet,” Mr. Culberson said in an interview.

Oh geez.

On Thursday, all the e-chatter drew a stern response from the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi of California, who, in a letter to Mr. Boehner, rebuffed what she called “inaccurate rumors” that the Democrats were trying to muzzle members of Congress.

Noting her own technological bona fides (“I have a blog, use YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, Digg, and other new media to communicate with constituents”), Ms. Pelosi said that the Democrats’ proposal would relax rules that prohibit members from posting on sites other than the House.gov domain.

The article is an interesting read, but let’s not forget that this is the legislative body that regulates our use of the Internet, among other issues, things like the so-called “Net Neutrality.” The fact that Nancy Pelosi and John Culberson are competing about the social media street creds frightens the hell out of me.

Mark

It appears that free speech, a basic tenet of our form of government, has fallen on hard times when it comes to Congress.

Twitter is blocked on Capitol Hill.

Forget the fact that FEMA uses it, forget the fact that NASA uses it, forget the fact that it could be an instant and excellent way to Members to communicate with constituents, or at least draw them into the debate, the Powers That Be on the Hill have blocked Twitter.

But there is hope, my friends. Have a visit to “Let Our Congress Tweet” and read all about the grassroots movement. Interesting. And while you are at at, have a visit to another site. Stop Blocking, Shel Holtz’s venture that makes the case for private corporatations to wise up and stop blocking types of Internet access for their employees.

Mark