Do Blogs Have to be Accurate? Some bloggers say it's better to be fast than accurate

A lot of blogs, because they don't have the time, resources, or inclination to do otherwise, publish rumors -- and fast, to get a jump on competing blogs and on mainstream media.

In an article that points out that problem (published by the New York Times, the pinnacle of MSM), Damon Darlin wrote an illuminating article, "Get the Tech Scuttlebutt! (It Might Even Be True.)"

Darlin cites the rumored acquisition talks between Apple and Twitter, which several blogs ran despite a sense that the talks were not taking place. As TechCrunch's Michael Arrington said, "It was interesting, and it didn't hurt anyone to write it."

That casual attitude towards accuracy, Darlin notes, was a component of early 20th century newspapers, known as "yellow journalism" and typified in "Citizen Kane," "The Front Page" and dozens of early movies whose settings included the newspaper. But newspapers eventually realized they needed to be accurate.

Not the case with blogs.

As Arrington told the Times, "Getting it right is expensive. Getting it first is cheap."

Or, as Brian Lam, who built Gizmodo, said, "The only way to compete with a news organiztion with more resources is to fit between the cracks...If we don't do have rumors, what do we have as journalists?" His answer: "You have press releases," which is how he justifies what they do. "So maybe there is some honor in printing rumors," he told Darlin.

For PR functions, this article and quotes are instructive. These are sites that don't honor embargoes (check out Can PR Embargoes Survive in a Web 2.0 World?) and have already said they prefer to post stories quickly rather than fact check them. I understand that, and it makes sense for them. It just means PR people need to be careful when approaching these blogs.

Are Blogs Dead? Some Reasons They're Still Alive

In Dec. 2008, I wrote a post, Are Blogs Dead?, in response to Jason Calcanis' now-famous proclamation that blogging is dead.

I answered that blogs aren't dead, certainly not to be replaced by email, as Calcanis suggsted. And I still believe that's the case.

Brandon Mendelson's Soap Box Included presents "10 Reasons Blogs Are Not Dead" basically providing reasons why blogs will continue and will not be fully replaced by social media.

• The blog serves as the cornerstone for your campaigns.
• Your existence on a social network is based entirely on the whim of that network.
• Your posts on social networks will not be indexed by a search engine or archived years after you have moved on to a new network.

These and the other points are pretty good, and worth discussing. Especially for PR functions who are wondering whether to launch or to continue their blogs.

10 Signs Your Governor is Having an Affair with a Woman from Argentina

I don't usually do this, but it seemed irresistible. With all due apologies to David Letterman:


10. New cabinet position: Secretary of the Tango.
9. The Governor ends all tough press conferences by singing, "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina."
8. Asks the legislature to repeal law forbidding the Lambada. (Sorry, that's how to tell your governor is having an affair with a Brazilian woman.)
7. Has renamed weekly radio address, "Stand Back, Argentina."
6. Makes fun of governors whose girlfriends come from less exotic places, like New Jersey. (I'm talkin' to you, Spitzer.)
5. New state holiday: May 19, Eva Peron's birthday.
4. Refuses to answer questions about affairs of state.
3. Spends lots of time "hiking on the Appalachian Trial."
2. New official state song: "The Girl from Ipanema."
1. Offered up the rights to his story if Andrew Lloyd Webber would write "Evita 2."

Is Twitter Right for Your Brand?

MediaPost's MarketingDaily has an interesting post, "Is My Brand Right For Twitter?"

There are some good questions along with some brief case studies of organizations doing a good job.

Some key questions include:

• What's your position, your brand's history? Can you sum it up simply?
• Who maintains the brand's voice? Does a brand ambassador exist?
• How well do you know your brand's age demographic?
  

Worth reading and discussing.

Do you have additional questions to help organizations determine if they should get on Twitter?

How Many 10 Commandments of Social Media Do You Need?

Recently Carrie Yatman, a PR specialist in San Francisco, asked an interesting question on LinkedIn:

"Would any of these be in your own 10 Commandments of Social Media...or Top 10 Tips List?"

• Fast Company 10 Commandments: http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/lon-safko/ten-commandments-social-media/ten-commandments-social-media/

• Maccabee Group 10 Commandments: http://www.maccabeegroup.com/images/CommandmentsSocialMedia.jpg

• Wordymouth.com Blog: http://wordymouth.com/2009/05/13/the-ten-commandments-of-social-media-engagement/

• Kyle Lacy's Blog: http://kylelacy.com/the-10-commandments-to-understanding-social-media/

Check 'em out. Actually, each of those 10 Commandments offer some valuable guidelines.

40 Commandments seems like a lot, yet they don't cover everything.

Which is a key point: that social media isn't a commodity the way a press release can be. One organization's social media experience will probably be different from the next, due to different needs, different set of audiences, different brand values, etc.

A decade ago, a press release was the standard tool. But because social media is new and evolving quickly and because we don't have a standard set of benchmarks across clients, each organization will need to explore social media, determine what works for them, and then continue to gain experience.

What's also interesting is, as with the real 10 Commandments, organizations have to make a leap of faith to social media before it pays off.

Is PR Evolving? Can it? Thoughts on one key challenge

After I wrote yesterday's post on whether PR is evolving, I came across an article, "PR in Transition" on Caster Blog, which lists 7 points.

The most interesting points, I think, are the ones in which the author, Joe Paone, says we're moving to a project-based model and will need to focus on outcomes, not outputs.

I know some of us have already seen more project work, in part because of budget issues. Yet I know we've also continue to win retainer projects this year, too.

But if this is the new normal, I do think we'll see demand for project work.

And because of scarce budgets and increased pressure on our clients, there is increased pressure on PR to perform, and to go beyond traditional PR goals that include generating leads. So there is absolutely more concern about measurement and outcomes.

The problem though is with social media. Outcomes in a social media world are more difficult to measure than outputs.

For example, I originally posted a slightly different version of this post as a comment to the Caster Blog article. Just as I posted posted comments to other people's blogs this week, so I can easily define my output.

But it's much more difficult pointing to the outcomes. I can't easily measure whether who will click on comments on those other blogs and decide to follow me to this blog after reading my post there or to click on my website after clicking on this blog.

I do have ways to measure click-throughs and comments on Twitter. But a lot of this it output first, and can take as much if not more time to determine outcomes.

That will be an issue we will have to solve.

Is PR Evolving? Can it? What Will it Look Like?

The media landscape is clearing changing. Print newspapers, some in existence more than 150 years, are either closing or shedding their print operations and shifting to online-only.

There are significant implications for journalists and J-schools.

But also for PR agencies and communications functions. We still need to work with print outlets.

But is PR evolving to address the new media reality? I suspect many are not fully embracing the future, based anecdotal evidence (potential clients are all interested in social media, but view it as a nice-to-do, not a must-do).

The question we ask over here is: what does PR look like in three years, and what steps must we take to ensure we're moving ourselves and our clients in the right direction. (We got some validation recently when a client, who had rejected our recommendation two years ago to embrace social media, finally did so, and thanked us for pushing them in that direction.)

What happens to digital agencies that have claimed bloggers and social media but have not worked with traditional soon-to-be online-only media? What happens to traditional agencies that have not focused much on social media? And what happens to internal PR functions and how they allocate resources?

A colleague heard a client say that PR is a dead field. I disagree, though I do think there will be a lot of agencies who can't make the transition from silent flicks to the talkies, to use an analogy current about 80 years ago.

I don't believe that social media is only a customer service channel, and therefore you no longer need PR.

To succeed, functions and agencies alike will need to think about how they can facilitate communications and generate meaningful results and benchmarks.

For a look at how science journalism and PR is evolving, check out this article on the blog, Flack's Revenge.