Later this year, we could see the introduction city specific domain names such as .london or . nyc. Following that we could see .movie, .food, .xxx, .kids or .justaboutanything!
For consumers, it offers clarity for services with each website having to establish exactly what it does and what service it provides. No doubt we’ll see industries crowding around particular domain names such as the entertainment industry around .film or newspapers around .news.
For years, .com has been the reigning champion of domain names with .co.uk and .net just feeling a bit cheap. However, now I forsee a time when .com is seen as ’soooo web 1.0′.
I’m off to register every .pr, .media, .blog and .marketing sites I can think of and finally make my fortune as a .com millionaire. I mean .pr millionaire. No, I mean .media or is that .blog? .cotton?? Oh forget it!
As candidate for the biggest job in the world (that’s President of the United States, by the way), which commentators would keep you awake at night? The big journalist guns of the New York Times or Washington Post, perhaps? Or might it be a 61-year-old Pennsyvanian housewife and part-time (wait for it…) BLOGGER? Keeping journalists out of a recent Barack Obama campaign event in Pennsylvania clearly lulled the presidential contender into - well - saying what he really thought. Unfortunately for him, the 37 cataclysmic words of his speech which included references to small town people being “bitter” and somewhat attached to “guns” and “religion” were reported on an influential liberal blog by Mayhill Fowler - an Obama supporter!
Within a day, the post had 100,000 hits and the Clinton PR machine was in full swing to capitalise on Obama’s comments.
Despite having zillions to spend on the best comms strategists in the business, Obama has learned the hard way about the new reality: in the world of citizen journalism, everything is fair game
An interesting insight into online professional networks can be found here with an audio discussion between FT management writer, Adam Jones, and LinkedIn’s Kevin Eyres. LinkedIn positions itself as a professional - as distinct from social - networking community in which business people can build contacts, get expert advice and manage their careers. Strictly no biting zombie applications or virtual sheep being hurled at one another here, methinks.
I’ve spent the last few years envisaging an application that would allow me to know what my journalist contacts were up to, minute-by-minute. I’ve thought about a messenger-based system that would allow me to drop a quick note to them to see if it’s a convenient time to chat about a possible news angle on behalf of my client because there’s nothing worse than calling when they’re on deadline.
Well it’s arrived and it’s growing in popularity. If Facebook is the new Second Life, then Twitter is the new Facebook. It’s the tool us PRs have been waiting for.
For those of you who haven’t come across Twitter, I encourage you to watch this video courtesy of Commoncraft.
Exploring Twitter from a PR perspective has been interesting and has shown initial potential but it needs to be accepted by the masses to make it truely useful. Here are my thoughts on potential future uses of Twitter for PRs:
- Online Research: Drawing on a pool of social media enthusiasts (why else would they have Twitter accounts?) has turned Twitter into a great resource for research. Answers to questions are incredibly quick and offer great insight into areas you might not be familiar with. Working on adventure sports for one of my clients, I had to wade through media databases and avoid the much-hyped but low traffic websites. After requested help on Twitter, within minutes I had reached a community of adventure sports enthusiats who offered guidance on forums where extreme sports fans actually interact. Thanks everyone!
- Contacts: I wonder how many journalists out there would sign up for Twitter if they knew it would put an end to calls and emails from PRs at inappropriate times? Well only 27 so far following a search for “UK” and “journalist”. They’re obviously all too shy to put on their real profession. If newsdesks had Twitter at their disposal, the relationship between hacks and flacks could change dramatically. From instant updates like “Don’t bother me. I’m on deadline!” through to “Looking for urgent case study about….” journalists should be using Twitter as a tool to interact with PRs. If newsdesks are evolving into 24-hour bodies, maybe it’s time for their journalists to move away from resources like ResponseSource to a more immediate communication tool.
- Driver to website or blog: Driving interested audiences to a particular website is a regular occurance on the application. Most of the people I follow are comentators in the social media field and so links on Twitter to new posts on their blog make it easy for me to make a snap judgement on whether I’m interested in the topic or not. As previously noted, Gordon Brown, or rather Number 10, uses Twitter to publicise the PM’s current activities and highlights press releases from their press office. I have no doubt I’m one of the first to read these releases and I like to think journalists are using this as a resource to follow the PMs movements.
- Listen to the conversation: Using tools such as Tweetscan, PRs can search for who is talking about their brand and in what context. (Thanks for that one Jon!)
It wouldn’t surprise me if companies with busy press offices set up their own Twitter feeds to announce press releases, but don’t bank on having masses of followers. Brands with a strong online following and dedicated brand advocates, such as Apple, will benefit highly from this but it will be interesting to see which companies experiment with this tool as it gains popularity online and with mainstream media.
I agree with James Horton that the key to Twitter for PRs is to experiment - the same philosophy behind any new media tool - but don’t forget that this is a community. Don’t see this solely as a resource. Ultimately, the more you put in, the more you’ll get out.
Technology has been leading the way in social media for some time. I’m not talking about your PC, Mac or handheld device that allows you to poke your friends any time of the day or night. I’m referring to the way big tech brands, such as Dell and Nokia, have invested in social media marketing campaigns.
This is, no doubt, due to the incredible growth in tech bloggers during the early days of web 2.0. Where it’s usually the automotive industry who receives great acclaim for pushing the boundaries of marketing, tech was in there first this time. Of course they had an unfair advantage by playing on their own, familar ground without even having to move from their desks.
Despite the incredible growth of this area, some have risen to the dizzy heights of what could be classed as mainstream. Blogs such as Boing Boing or Gizmodo attract huge audiences along with recognised authority in the blogosphere. So what happens when you make one mad? They tend to be quite vocal about it as 118 118 have just discovered following the recent ’padded lamposts’ PR stunt. Ok, maybe not mad. More embarrassed for falling for such a stunt. But don’t worry TechDigesters, you weren’t alone. Even ITN thought it was 1st April.
