The world of blogging, or should I say the Blogosphere, has had a thorough sifting and analysis thanks to leading blog search engine, Technorati. And some of the conclusions should add something to marketing departments’ “to do” lists.

The graph below shows the impact that blogging has had on professional and corporate bloggers, with the main benefit to businesses being a higher industry profile.

A good example of corporate blogging well done has to be that of Sun Microsystems’ CEO, Jonathan Schwartz, who manages to have a respectable blog “authority level” - that is the number of other blogs linking to your blog - without compromising the company’s image.

Social media expert, Chris Brogan, is one commentator who has lauded Schwartz’s blog for making the company appear human and having that extra, indefinable sheen that goes beyond pounds and pence.

Interesting story on the front of today’s PR Week about rival Labour and Tory plans to dominate the blogosphere. More on the Labour/Draper story at a later date but the Tory plan caught my eye. Apparently they’ve been working with Screen West Midlands to gather together a group of local bloggers and give them ‘VIP access’.

There will be access to politicians although I think Rishi Saha, Tory head of new media, is struggling to guarantee specific shadow ministers. This is a small but positive move and reflects the approach in the US, where for example the McCain campaign has daily conference calls with bloggers, including UK Tory bloggers! Loic le Meur also used this on the Sarkozy campaign.

What’s fascinating here is that they have chosen non-political blogs to take part in this. The guests are blogging in the arts, culture and entertainment spheres. The aim is to build a groundswell of support amongst general opinion formers who may be persuaded to engage and debate Tory policies as opposed to rabidly backing or attacking.

It’s a laudable aim but if it’s going to work the Tories need to show genuine long term commitment to this and make senior people regularly available in person, phone, email between now and the election. The danger is that the bemused bloggers are hurded into a backroom in Birmingham for tea and buscuits, have an awkward Q&A with a bemused shadow cabinet member and then having ticked a box forget all about it.

Its also interesting that the Tories have used Screen West Midlands to get these bloggers together. I guess they must be local leaders in new media as opposed to Tory supporters. It’s important to find a local group such as this you need to convene a group of the local blogerati.

10 out of 10 for effort, would love to get reaction from the Brummie bloggers as to what actually happens. Those taking part will include Dave Harte, Podnosh and CreatedinBirmingham.com.

Recently I wrote about the rise of the Twitterati and how Twitter was becoming a way for celebrities to engage with their fans.  Incidentally after a few days of silence Andy Murray is now microblogging again.  

Today social media pioneer Neville Hobson used Twitter as a quasi IT department.  On discovering that his website had vanished, Neville or ‘Jangles’ as he is know in twitterville, turned to the fast growing online community for help.   Shortly after 8am GMT Neville posted a cheery hello followed a couple of minutes later by the following; “Whoa, looks like my blog disappeared. Someone else there instead. Wtf?”.   Just three minutes later Neville was getting advice from fellow users of the Twitter service, notably from 6consulting.  Throughout the day Neville was updating on his progress and the lack of a response from hosting company Dreamhost.  Given that Neville has over 1,700 followers on Twitter that’s a real PR issue.  By tea time the site was back up but I wonder at what cost to Dreamhost, who according to the tweets still hadn’t contacted Mr H.

With user numbers growing 422% year on year, Twitter is a phenomenally simple idea that provides seemingly limitless possibilities.  Yes it’s a social network, but you can use it as a social search tool, a promotional mechanic, a news feed or a micro diary or even for IT support.  I wonder, did anyone suggest to Neville that he switched it off and on again? 

Amid global financial meltdown, there’s hope!

At least that’s what Albert Maruggi says in his latest blog posting. I like Maruggi’s boundless optimism (listen to his Marketing Edge podcast and you can actually hear it, in spades!) and wry take on the shame seeping out of Wall Street right now in his Twittering.

But he’s got a good point. The financial services industry could do far worse (and it has done) than taking on some of the principles of social media - openness and transparency.

But while corporate America is still, as Maruggi suggests, in the early adopter stage of using social media, where does that leave the rest of us? Maybe it’s time we started to lead the States instead of taking the lead from them.

The new media world of Manchester’s bloggers came face to face with 140 years of newspaper heritage at the Manchester Evening News (MEN) last night.

But even a paper that began life in a “dingy office in Brown Street” has had to change with the times. Now housed in shiny offices, the decor is not the only thing that’s changed.

Assistant news editor, Paul Gallagher, explained how the MEN’s print, online capability and tie-up with Manchester TV station, Channel M, means that decisions on news are very much based on its suitability for the medium, though the paper tends to time the release of online news with the hard copy, so not to compete with itself.

What’s also changed is the way content comes together, combining old fashioned news hounding with readers’ online comments, video taken on reporters’ mobile phones and the work of citizen journalists. As Paul says: “The benchmark for a good story hasn’t changed. But you just have more people contributing to it.”

And the days of the “death knock” - visiting the homes of the recently bereaved in search of a story and, vitally, a photo - may be numbered with newspapers like the MEN turning to online tribute sites for the material they need.

Head of online editorial, Sarah Hartley, described the paper’s move to greater online content and gave a sneak preview of the live blogging and Twittering planned for the Labour Party Conference in Manchester, which starts this Saturday in Manchester.

Still, it was great to see some relics from the past remain, such as the MEN’s hard copy reference library (see pic).

Microblogging to your Fans

 The British number 1 tennis player and finalist in the recent US Open is on Twitter.  He’s been up there for a month and as of today’s date he has just over 400 followers.  This will rise dramatically.   What is interesting, is not just that we can tune in to a leading sporting figure as he prepares for a major match,  Andy ate pasta and played Scrabble the night before the Open final, but that fans get to hear directly from their hero, with no-one in between.  In the worlds of music, sport and entertainment that’s gold.   

I can’t be certain that Andy is posting himself but every comment has the ring of total authenticity and the first person he followed was his brother Jamie which makes me confident this is the genuine article.  No doubt a PR person or someone else in his entourage suggested it and has advised on it, but the fact that it is real and direct is what makes it work.  There are other celebrities on Twitter but I think Andy is blazing a trail.  The former lead singer of Black Flag and post punk poet Henry Rollins is up there too.  He announced his arrival on January 22nd 2007 with the words “I hate everbody“.  Since then with just 75 ‘tweets’ he has gained 11,785 followers.  There are musicians (or more probably their associaties) who are using it as a promotional tool but Andy and Henry are telling it as it is.  

Stand by for a rush to join the new ’Twitterati’.It won’t be long before we have a flood of singers, sporting heroes and stars of the screen, sharing stuff on the microblog of the moment.  Mark Borkowski will have to add it to the next edition of his book The Fame Formula.   The ones like Andy, who don’t try too hard, keep it interesting and avoid the hard sell will turn followers into ardent fans. Advantage Murray.  

Personal Branding on the Social Web

Why, I wondered does Neville Hobson hold his hand in front of his face in the picture on his blog…and on Twitter…and on…hang on a minute.

Is this a subtle form of personal branding?  Social networks; Facebook, Linked-In and microblogs like Twitter are growing fast and individuals are, if not clamouring for our attention, at least aware that there is a lot of noise out there.  If we are going to build an individual online presence it makes sense to follow some of the tradional rules of branding.  Consistency is one, which means using the same image across a range of networks.  Using a strong, stand out and easy to remember image is another.  Pr 2.0 gurus Todd Defren  and Brian Solis  both do this - Todd has a cartoon style image on his Twitter feed and Brian uses an arresting image with his specs in the foreground on his blog.  

Chris Brogan has just published an ebook on personal online branding so it’s a hot topic.  It’s an interesting read and looks at personal branding from a broad prespective.  What particularly fascinates me is the way in which people apply the iconographic rules that have histrically been used by brands totheir own images of themselves.  

This world has created some rules of its own.  Take a look at the picture above of some of the people I follow on Twitter.  These images are tiny, smaller than thumbnails, so making something work at this scale becomes part of the art.  Colin Byrne  CEO of Weber Shandwick and Deirdre Breakenridge author of the book PR 2.0 both use strong purple colours in their backgrounds to make them stand out.  Aleks Krotoski , presenter of The Guardian’s Tech Weekly podcast uses a close up of her fire red locks as her Twitter image (fifth row, left of middle).

I have no proof that any of these individuals have done anything other than post the first image they came across but whether by luck or good judgement they all stand out.  I have to confess I have toyed with the technique myself.  There is a deliberate use of colour in my profile pic and it seemed to me that if social networks use small images an extreme close up might be a good idea.  Charles Arthur Technology Editor of The Guardian didn’t agree.  He thinks I’m trying to hide a dodgy moustache. 

The Travelogue (in addition to being the title of albums by both Joni Mitchell and The Human League) is one of the great traditions in writing. From ancient sagas, through to Kerouac’s pseudo fictional ‘On the Road’ and Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman’s ‘Long Way Round’ (and Down), travel stories have always been a part of our culture. They capture the imagination and take us as virtual passengers on epic journeys.  The Travelogue is journalism in its true sense, it is a journal or diary of events; one that educates and informs.

It seems to me that a blog provides us with the perfect platform for travel writing.  Not only are we privy to the grand tour but the immediacy of the blog means that we can follow the trip as it happens.

I have two colleagues writing Travelblogs as we speak; one in Russia and the other in New York.  You can follow Liz Dewhurst’s adventures on Madison Avenue here at PR Media Blog.  Michael Cooper and his mate Scott are telling Slavic tales at Mike and Scott’s Russian Blogski.  These are two modern takes on a great writing institution.  No pressure then guys.

I posted yesterday about the efforts that the Democrats/Google are making to facilitate ordinary bloggers at the Democrat National Convention in Denver. There is a huge resource called the Big Tent, sponsored by Google, complete with broadband access, editing kit and access to the politicians. 

Guardian have posted a cracking video report from inside Google’s Big Tent. Its 4 minutes+ so it won’t eat up too much of the day.  Last year I had a press pass for the Labour and Lib Dem conferences, so I spent a lot of time inside the facilities they provide for the UK mainstream media. Their bloggers tent is a 5 star hotel versus our political parties’ version of Fawlty Towers!

I often talk about how politicians can use new media to connect better to Party members. Here’s an enterprising Tory who has set up Tory Radio, an online radio station dedicated to doing just that. In the spirit of Tories online, here’s Iain Dale  interviewing him on Telegraph TV.