Out-And-Out

Now that Microsoft and Yahoo are officially done. Each brand is going to feel pressure showing their true worth. With the digital market soaring, successful companies like Facebook and AOL may be acquired.

Although both companies would have to pay a hefty price. When Microsoft bought a small chunk of Facebook, it cost the company nearly 15 billion.

With unsteady market feature, it will be interesting to see the offers Microsoft places on the table for these successful, start-up ventures and if they will produce profitable results for Microsoft.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/05/now-in-play-aol-facebook-and-many-others/index.html?th&emc=th

Great article in the LA Times day on privacy and social networks and how so many networks are being infused with identity marketing theives. Tips to protect yourself: know your social networking site, set up privacy settings, keep your firewalls and anti-virus software up-to-date.

Check it out.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-socialid5-2008may05,0,5852217.story?track=ntothtml

The Micropersuasion blog is full of great links about various social media marketing tactics and issues.

http://www.micropersuasion.com/

Blogs have become one of the most influential pieces of writing in the media. More and more people are beginning to take blogging seriously and are tuning in to their favorite bloggers for their news. I think the current Presidential election is a prime example of the growing influence of bloggers. On “Super Tuesday”, Fox News was quoting bloggers responses to political candidates and the current election. Blogging has grown in popularity for several reasons. Blogger have become the fact checkers of society. They take comments by anyone from local politicians to media sources and find the “real” truth. They are willing to dig and scrounge up the truth on all circumstances. Generally speaking, bloggers have become the independent source. Although there are several bloggers who only blog for certain causes. There are still many objective bloggers who are blogging for the truth and deliver the truth to the people. Bloggers have also become extremely successful word spreaders. The inter-connected blogging network stays aware of inter-account activities. Professional bloggers are constantly reading information from news sources and then researching issues on-line from other sources commenting on each other’s post to spur conversation. Bloggers are also able to break news extremely fast. The Internet provides a great medium for instant communication. The question for bloggers remains how can they continue to and make their blog a must read for journalists?

Bloggers must keep their material relevant. Not only should their material be relevant, they must be up-to-date and consistent. Other have noted that proper social tagging can be very effective in drawing journalists into a blog. Bloggers must establish themselves and identify themselves as a credible, newsworthy source.

Podcasts and blogs are made for each other. Podcasts have become the radio craze of the Internet, but unfortunately it seems to only reach a distinct target audience. They appeal to those glued-to their Ipod, Iphone or computer all day. But more and more people are beginning to listen to podcasts as they run or even during their morning commute. Podcasts utilize time-shifted media to the max. You can bring and carry it along anywhere. It’s a constant source and feed of information which so many of us crave.

The question is will podcasts be the death of the radio? Podcast enthusiasts think it will. Podcasts are more appealing to the general public because they are real. They’re aren’t embedded in corporate and industry regulations. They remain a fresh and independent source. They even have this alternative edge and a lot of times that non-commercial tone is appealing to viewers. Podcasts also are more narrow than a radio station. For example, one popular show is MommyTalk with mom’s talking about well their daily challenges and opportunities. Other shows are simply about vineyards and wine in California. All the channels and shows are specialized and fine-tuned to personal interest. In a way, it’s a personal radio station. You can hear what you want when you want. This is what makes podcasts one of the most ideal digital formats for information. It’s all about convenience. Some podcasts are even adding a digital component which makes the format even more engaging and interactive. Podcasts have a bright future on the web and will most likely only grow in popularity.

Edelman Vice President with Edelman Digital said that he would help students and take surveys or interview him on being a PR Professional. What a great opportunity!

For more information on Phil Gomes, check out his blog called Blogservations.

http://www.philgomes.com/blog/

Lately, Twitter has been all the craze. Its been all over the place. And everyone has been talking about the tweets. I have been on Twitter for the past couple of months and in fact stopped using the site. Personally, I never found the status updates to be useful. Perhaps, I’m friends with the wrong people and I dont’ receive relevant, interesting information, but many times the tweets seem to irrelevant, personal and rather pointless as an information source. Once again, I’m sure that all depends on the quality of your Twitter friends. I also feel like the site is much like AIM or even Facebook status updates.

I think Twitter would be good for various things within a company. At work, we tried using Twitter as means of communicating rather than calling or running to someone’s office. It lasted for about a week, but for our office, it was easier to call or just talk about it in person. In the right office culture, I think Twitter could be wonderful especially in a huge office. It’s a great way to ask quick questions, but then again you don’t necessarily need Twitter to ask these quick questions, you could shoot emails or even use AIM or good ol’ in-person communication.

Bloggers say they love Twitter because for them it has become a mini-post. Let’s say they just have a link and they dont’ want to comment. They would rather send it as a tweet than create a post.

In the end, it’ll be interesting to see where all the buzz goes and if it does produce fresh results for the site.