Andrew Lark

Is This A CEO First...

Jonathan Schwartz, CEO, Sun comments on Sun's recent earnings on his Blog in what might be a CEO first - at least I haven't seen a CEO expanding on their earnings call on a blog. It really adds good insight for those of us without time to listen in - or in my case - on the other side of the planet when the call took place.

Jonathan is also featured in a piece in the NY Times in a piece on CEO blogging. Steve makes a good addition to the piece, recommending that CEOs don't venture into the blogosphere alone.

Technorati : PR, Participatory Communications, Sun

How Often Should A Blogger Post?

I get asked this question often - and become acutely aware of it when not posting for short periods of time. Last week I was on the road downunder and just didn't have time to get to posting.

For me, the simple answer is, as often as you can and whatever you are comfortable with. Not posting for extended periods of time will definitely cause folks to stray to other things. Will they come back? RSS keeps you on the radar for when you do raise your head - but I am still amazed how many folks are not using an RSS reader.

I'd rather post and read content of some quality than drivel for the sake of posting. So, rule of thumb - shoot for once a week, more if you can.

Thoughts?

The Long Debate...

The Long Tail is finally spurring debate. It is refreshing to see some pretty big brains going at the notion and debating it. Lee Gomes took a swing at the notion in the WSJ to which Chris has responded. Nick weighs in, publishing a more detailed email from Lee.

Where do I sit? The Internet is changing everything (still). I'm not totally getting the math that the majority of sales come from the long tail though.

Big Changes At Fleishman-Hillard...

Dave Senay is the new President CEO! I worked with Dave for many years and am deeply indebted to John Graham and him for the support and counsel they provided to me over the years. The two of them represent everything any employee or client could wish for out of a leader.

Congrats also to Paul Johnson who is the new Vice Chairman of Worldwide Growth and President of Public Affairs.

This is a long and widely anticipated move by FH - and its the right move for them to make. John Graham remains, in my mind, the greatest agency leader we have seen in the past 60 years - what they have achieved at Fleishman is remarkable.

disclosure:: I was a Fleishman senior VP and partner for many years and Kristen is a partner there today.

The Trend Thing | Podcasts

A new report from Nielsen/NetRatings gives some interesting demographics of podcast listeners. Generalizations aside, the report has some interesting results:

• 51.6% of people who listen to podcasts pay their bills online. But, podcasting is not yet nearly as popular as viewing and paying bills online, 51.6 percent, or online job hunting, 24.6 percent. 24.6% have participated in online job searches.

• 6.6% of adults have downloaded a podcast and the the 18-24 age range is twice as likely as the average adult to download podcasts.

• Apple users are more likely to download podcasts as Windows users. Audio and video podcasters are over three times as likely as the average Web user to use Apple's Safari as their primary Internet browser.

Is Apple the platform of choice for the Web 2.0 generation?

Big Trends Done Quickly

Keith over at PRWeek asked for some thoughts on the most important trend, tool, service, company, or whatever will be in the second half of 2006. Here are my quick thoughts done late at night and on the fly. Caveat - when it comes to predictions I am normally wrong... Let me know your thoughts...

1. Trend: Communities and their citizen editors reassembling the fragmented media and conversation space creating powerful micro channels to which millions flock.
2. Company : The one with the biggest community. Think Nike, Apple, VW, Lego. …ok, so I wimped out… Apple if they can integrate the iPod, video and phone fully. And Microsoft - the degree to which key technologies such as RSS is implemented in IE7, Vista and Office 2007 is fantastic.
3. Technology : The Wiki & Community creation platform (think FiveAcross).
4. Service: SixApart, (TypePad, Vox). And, Dabble db - finally we can build our own applications in real-time! And iTunes - what AP/PR Newswire was to the press release, iTunes is to the Podcast.
5. Person: . The blogger, podcaster, vcaster and participatory communicator.

Saying all that… some expanded thoughts... No company matters as much as the community. Communities are ascending as defining force. Nike matters less to me as a soccer fan than the Nike community Joga.com. The companies that matter to consumers will be those with rich communities. Other thoughts on what might happen:

1. Fortune 500 corporations hire their first "conversationalists" - staffers dedicated not to transmitting information (PR) but rather, igniting conversations.
2. Media continues to fragment and reassemble around citizen editors.
3. PR continues its rapid evolution from transmission of content to igniting conversations.
4. Measurement takes a backseat to monitoring as communicators efforts to keep track of the blogosphere and citizen media kick into overdrive. In background mode, measurement practioners start working on new metrics that track participation. (There is an absolute difference between monitoring and measurement).
5. Major agencies launch new press release formats, following hot on the heels of tech boutique Shift. BusinessWire and PRNewswire wake from their slumber and assemble these fragmented efforts into a compelling Web 2.0 offerings.
6. Having discovered the power of technology to add value to their clients, major agencies step-up their efforts with branded RSS readers carrying highly customized content to audiences and customers.
7. As media fragmentation accelerates, media planning starts to raise its head as a critical communications function. Once the purview of advertising departments, communications practioners deliver media planning as a means of hunting and communicating with elusive audiences.
8. More than half the PR profession is still in catch-up mode. They don't listen to podcasts, use RSS readers or blog. Therefore, the most important technology isn't the technology, it's the adoption of it which will continue to accelerate.
9. The Wiki & Web 2.0 technologies such as Writely and Dabble db. They will change the way PR practitioners work internally and share with clients. I'm using Quickbase today - which is pretty expensive but very good.
10. OMPL files finally start getting integrated into marketing offerings.

Big Trends Done Quickly

Keith over at PRWeek asked for some thoughts on the most important trend, tool, service, company, or whatever will be in the second half of 2006. Here are my quick thoughts done late at night and on the fly. Caveat - when it comes to predictions I am normally wrong... Let me know your thoughts...

1. Trend: Communities and their citizen editors reassembling the fragmented media and conversation space creating powerful micro channels to which millions flock.
2. Company : The one with the biggest community. Think Nike, Apple, VW, Lego. …ok, so I wimped out… Apple if they can integrate the iPod, video and phone fully. And Microsoft - the degree to which key technologies such as RSS is implemented in IE7, Vista and Office 2007 is fantastic.
3. Technology : The Wiki & Community creation platform (think FiveAcross). Service:SixApart, (TypePad, Vox). And, Dabble db - finally we can build our own applications in real-time! And iTunes - what AP/PR Newswire was to the press release, iTunes is to the Podcast.
4. Person: . The blogger, podcaster, vcaster and participatory communicator.

Saying all that… some expanded thoughts... No company matters as much as the community. Communities are ascending as defining force. Nike matters less to me as a soccer fan than the Nike community Joga.com. The companies that matter to consumers will be those with rich communities. Other thoughts on what might happen:

1. Fortune 500 corporations hire their first "conversationalists" - staffers dedicated not to transmitting information (PR) but rather, igniting conversations.
2. Media continues to fragment and reassemble around citizen editors.
3. PR continues its rapid evolution from transmission of content to igniting conversations.
4. Measurement takes a backseat to monitoring as communicators efforts to keep track of the blogosphere and citizen media kick into overdrive. In background mode, measurement practioners start working on new metrics that track participation.
5. Major agencies launch new press release formats, following hot on the heels of tech boutique Shift. BusinessWire and PRNewswire wake from their slumber and assemble these fragmented efforts into a compelling Web 2.0 offerings.
6. Having discovered the power of technology to add value to their clients, major agencies step-up their efforts with branded RSS readers carrying highly customized content to audiences and customers.
7. As media fragmentation accelerates, media planning starts to raise its head as a critical communications function. Once the purview of advertising departments, communications practioners deliver media planning as a means of hunting and communicating with elusive audiences.
8. More than half the PR profession is still in catch-up mode. They don't listen to podcasts, use RSS readers or blog. Therefore, the most important technology isn't the technology, it's the adoption of it which will continue to accelerate.
9. The Wiki & Web 2.0 technologies such as Writely and Dabble db. They will change the way PR practitioners work internally and share with clients.
10. OMPL files finally start getting integrated into marketing offerings.

Your Attention Please

BusinessWeek has a terrific piece on how Web 2.0 is pulling the fragmented mass market together. It starts with a look at how we now allocate out attention - less on the media's schedule and more on ours (time and place shifting).

Some nice quotes from Nike who are fully embracing communities with sites like Joga for soccer fans.

"Gone are the days of the one big ad, the one big shoe, and the hope that when we put it all together again it makes a big impact" - Trevor Edwards, vp global brand management, Nike.

Technorati : PR, Public Relations

PRSA Presentation...

A couple of weeks ago I gave a presentation at PRSA's technology conference in NY. I've divided the presentation into Part One and Part Two to ease the download process. EPIC - The Evolving Personalized Information Construct - is over here.

Let me know if you have questions.

Dell Launches Blog

Dell is out of the gate with a corporate blog... Like every corporate blog it is looking for a voice and will probably take time to find one. It's a little corporatey - but then its a corporate blog. The bloggerati just need to get over every blog coming out the gate reading like a conversation at the local pub and not rehashing the past trials and tribulations of bloggers. It takes time for a corporate blog to find its collective voice.

Perhaps the best thing we could do to welcome a new corporate blog isn't to critique it (just yet) but rather to participate. Engage them if you are interested. Give it time to settle and grow and nurture it with comments.

PRWeek says they are out to tell a story - if the story is - as it seems to be - "take a look at our really hot boxes" - then I hope they continue down the path of more recent posts which do seem to have more of a narrative.

The fact that they don't address past issues doesn't really bother me - I really could care less about the ranting and raving about Dell customer service - I use an Apple and a Sony... :-)

Anyway - I have a long history with Dell and am a big fan - it's great to see them taking steps in the right direction with regard to their communication. A company that has direct at its core should be engaging in conversations. The do to the tune of about 3 million calls a day so why not here!

Technorati : Dell