PNeo

WHAT IS: RSS?

For the smart PR professional, the Internet should be the first port of call in the morning to keep on top of the daily news agenda and spot any potential newsjacking opportunities.

At the last count, Google claimed that it currently indexes roughly one trillion web pages. OK, we know that 99.999 per cent of those pages are probably about ponies, midgets and the like, but that still leaves a huge amount of information that needs to be sifted through.

One of my personal favourite developments in Web technology has to be the RSS feed. The latest, arguably flawed research from Forrester revealed that 11 per cent of consumers use RSS. There are a number of variations of both RSS itself and what the RSS stands for. However, for our purposes, we will stick to the RSS created by Dave Winer, which is often referred to as RSS 2.0 with the initials meaning Really Simple Syndication.

PR professionals who monitor specific websites on a daily [or more frequent] basis would have to remember each website and open them individually. They would then have to scan each site to look for new news items and make note of them / collate them / remember them. 

However, by working in tandem with sites or applications  such as Google Reader, Bloglines or NewsGator [also known as feed aggregators], RSS feeds allow you to manage all the content on a site. Readers can subscribe to feeds by clicking on the RSS button [pictured]. The news aggregator site will then display any new content and automatically update itself.

At its very most basic, it means that instead of visiting each news site, any new, relevant content is pulled for you, on a single site. It might sound lazy, but a PRO could literally scan a page of headlines looking for relevant stories in minutes instead of opening the 30 or so new sites they have to regularly check. Instead of remembering to visit all those sites, the user only needs to remember the address of his or her news aggregator site [or even have it as their home page]. Updates, to wiki or blogs can also be quickly viewed.

RSS feeds do not sound like the most terribly exciting internet tool. However, used with news aggregator sites, RSS feeds can shave time off the daily grind of PR life.

WHAT IS: Podcasting?

Decreasing costs of technology and distribution have made it cheaper to create content that appeals to mainly niche audiences. A podcast is video or audio content that is often embedded in an RSS 2.0 feed. The name was created by combining “iPod” and “broadcasting”. Podcasting allows the content to be syndicated, subscribed to and downloaded automatically. These files can be played back by the RSS subscriber at the user’s convenience on an MP3 device, other portable device or PC. Podcasts work on all sorts of devices not just iPods.

How does it work?

There are five basic steps:

1. Create the podcast - Anyone can create a podcast. No satellites, radio stations etc are required. All you need is a microphone and/or video camera, computer and connection to the web
2. Edit the content
3. Upload to server
4. Users subscribe
5. Updates - The difference between podcasts and basic downloads is that podcasts are part of a series (weekly, fortnightly or monthly schedule) so that the user receives a series of files that build on each previous session. Anything else is a download.

Why should I care?

Porter Novelli has an interest in addressing small, specialist audiences of influencers.

Why has it taken off?

The key drivers behind the growth of podcasting include technology and shifts in consumer expectation.

Technology has made it easy and quick for us to download and update files as well as increased the number of ways we can consume this content. Mobile video and audio devices allow us to consume this content where and when we want. A related driver is the growing expectation amongst consumers that they can watch anything, anytime and anywhere.

When is podcasting relevant?

Clients shouldn’t necessarily all start podcasting but there are certainly situations where it may make sense. Examples of cases where it could be a cost-effective way to engage niche audiences include:

• when communicating with specialist stakeholders such as legislators, shareholders etc
•  internal training and communications – for example record training sessions and make them available to entire corporation via podcast
•  promotion of content – increase the value of existing activity and assets by distributing this content online
• increase the value of sponsorships – for example capture and distribute behind the scenes coverage and interviews with key players/performers for an event that a client has sponsored

WHAT IS: Google?

What is this?

Google’s original mission remains intact: to use search to organise the web’s information. We enter what we’re looking for, click ‘Google Search’, and Google, almost instantly, scours the web.

It uses a rather impressive algorithm called PageRank – named after co-founder Larry Page – which assigns a numerical weighting to each element of a hyperlinked set of documents, such as the World Wide Web, with the purpose of measuring its relative importance within the set (Wikipedia).

In the world of PageRank, websites ‘vote’ for, rather than link to, one another. The importance of a site is measured through a combination of the number of votes received, and the number of votes received by the sites its votes came from.

Why should I care?

There is far more to the Google story. Delving deeper, it becomes clear that there is a whole load of functionality – and controversy – lurking beneath the surface.

Google could well play a bigger part in your life, now or in the future, than you might expect.

Google is becoming so ubiquitous that the company is often accused of spying on us, not just in terms of what we’re searching, but in the real, physical world. Google Street View was subject to plenty of bad publicity earlier this year because its “360-degree panoramic street-level views” (Wikipedia) have been deemed a breach of privacy.

The ‘absolutely everywhere’ nature of Google inevitably raises questions about online privacy too. Google has the capability, though not necessarily the inclination, to store data about our internet use.

But one of Google’s great positives is its wide range of features (this is just a small sample): 

• Blogger
• Google Reader
• YouTube
• Picasa
• Chrome
• Google Alerts
• Google Documents
• Google Maps
• Google Calendar 

This means a large chunk of our online activity converges with Google at some point. But it is that functionality which makes Google far more than a search engine. 

Any social media benefits?

Most importantly, I’m a big fan of Google Reader. Before pitching bloggers or even blogging effectively, it’s essential to read. The easiest way to familiarise ourselves with the content out there which interests us is through that wonderful creation, RSS. And it just so happens that Google Reader is regarded by me – and a whole bunch of far more influential and wise digi-folk – as one of the best readers available. It allows us to manage, search and read RSS feeds easily, and share and annotate them.

Google is also active in the blogging space. Its Blog Search is useful for social media professionals as a supplement to Technorati, for example, but we can also blog through Google – in fact I do, regularly. Blogger is a popular blogging platform which Google bought in 2003, and is a great starting point for novice bloggers.

Two of Google’s other major purchases, Picasa and YouTube are also social beasts. The former enables photo sharing, the latter video. It doesn’t get much more social than sharing such rich content around friends and family.

Any issues I should know about?

Google gets a lot of bad press about data use and privacy, so that’s something to think about.

Google does some things very well: their search is such that ‘to Google’ is a commonly used verb, and Google Reader’s rather wonderful. But Picasa, Talk and Google Mail all stand out as products with plenty of competition.

Google is possibly well on the way to providing viable cloud computing. Before that becomes possible, we need to have reliable and effective methods. Google’s made a start, along with competitors in some cases. Picasa enables us to store and share photos, and Google Docs does the same for documents. Calendar, Mail and Notebook can also be seen in the same light.

How much does it cost?

Zip. Google has amassed its vast fortune in a variety of ways, but extracting cash from the everyday web user is not one of them.

WHAT IS: Wikipedia?

Founded in 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger, Wikipedia is an attempt to collect and summarise all human knowledge in every major language. Its content is written and developed collaboratively by volunteers around the world, and nearly all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the internet. 

Why should I care?

Wikipedia is the largest and most popular source of information online. As of April 2008 it had over 10 million articles in 253 languages, almost a quarter of which are in English. Wikipedia pages feature highly in search results and it is often the first place people will look for information about your clients.

Can this make me look foolish in any way?

Yes. 

Creating or editing articles in the interests of public relations is frowned upon. By public relations, Wikipedia does not just mean people employed by PR agencies. It also means anyone who has a vested interest in the company being written about. That also means you can’t pay an independent writer to create or alter client article.

If you do get tempted or requested by a client to create or alter an article, you should bear in mind that it will be noticed and the changes will be traced back, if not to you directly, then to your company's domain. If that happens then at best, the article might be deleted. At worst you are also risking the reputation of your client and your agency.

The good news is that there is a well defined process for approaching Wikipedia contributors and asking them to create or edit on your behalf which is covered in the upcoming How-to create and edit Wikipedia articles.

Suggested further reading

Wikipedia: Conflict of Interest

Wikipedia: Is in the the real world

WHAT IS: Twitter?

Twitter’s not a difficult to tool to explain. Like the status update on Facebook, users notify their “friends” (i.e. those that have chosen to follow their updates) describing what they’re doing or thinking via text-based posts. The main characteristic of Twitter is that members can only use 140 characters per update – so messages have to be to the point. The difficulty with Twitter lies in trying to explain why over two million people use it.

“Microblogging” is the generally accepted term describing sites such as Twitter. Updates can be sent/ received via the Twitter Web site, instant messaging, RSS, SMS or other Twitter tools such as Twhirl and Twitteriffic. The ability to send and receive updates or “tweets” via mobile handsets is also key. By being able to communicate using a device as ubiquitous as a mobile phone, members can send their instant thoughts to their followers. 

“I’ve just had a jam sandwich. It was great”

The most common criticism generally levied at Twitter is that tweets are pointless – why should you care what @GilesS has had for lunch?

And in many respects you wouldn’t care. Twitter is small talk; like discussing the weather or asking how someone’s weekend was (or what someone has planned for the weekend if it’s after Wednesday). It’s about getting to know someone when you haven’t got time for a proper conversation.

Devil’s in the detail 

Think about times when you pitch a journalist. You greet them with a redundant: “Hi, how are you?” for them to reply with an equally grey answer. Then you go into your spiel about how Pete’s Papers is revolutionising the printing industry with a new type of paper (it’s slightly whiter).

But what if you began by asking how their story on network infrastructure is going or how they got on at the conference they attended? It’s a nicer way of leading up to the pitch and this information is often freely available on Twitter. Some journalists are known to approve of being pitched through Twitter because they believe a pitch that can interest them in 140 characters is worth writing about. However, PR’s would be well advised to build some sort of relationship with the journalist on Twitter before asking whether it is fine to pitch them. 

Initial thoughts

Many bloggers are also on Twitter and it’s here that they often break stories or communicate their initial thoughts. By using Twitter search engines, such as Twitter Search, TwitterTroll or Flaptor PRs can evaluate what people are saying about their brands.

A large number of media outlets – from The Financial Times (@financialtimes) to ITPro (@itpro) have a Twitter account with stories posted as soon as they’re live. Twitter users have been known to break stories before the mass media. The recent earthquakes in China and Los Angeles were both on Twitter first.

Each Twitter, differs

Everyone uses Twitter differently. Some use it for networking, others as a glorified chatroom. As with much of social media, just imagine you’re in a pub. You wouldn’t say anything slanderous, libellous or stupid because people can hear you. Once you have spent time using the platform, you’ll find your own voice. There’s no right or wrong way.

Tweet what you sow 

As with most forms of social media, Twitter is free but it can take time to get started. Remember the first time you used Facebook, MySpace, Orkut, QQ or any other social networking site? You dipped in and out and it wasn’t until you spent time on it properly that you found a use for it. Twitter’s the same – the more time you spend on it the more you’ll get out of the community.

WHAT IS: Social Bookmarking?

What is this?

Remember books? Remember how you used to put bookmarks in them so you knew exactly where you were up to and didn’t have to search through them to find your page?

Online, you might use bookmarks already like this: you find something you like on the web, so you bookmark it. From then on, if you want to return to that page, you don’t have to search for it – you just go straight to that bookmark (sometimes called a ‘Favorite’ for example on Internet Explorer).

Now consider what you do when you give people documents or reports that you’ve read. To bring certain areas to their attention you might put notes in the margins, or a list of interesting pages at the front. You might put post-its in the report explaining why this is interesting.

This is what social bookmarking is, using the web, with all its interconnectivity, to share many bookmarks for many documents between many people.

Social bookmarking takes the approach that, if you share your bookmarks online, other people can see what you consider interesting, and you can find out what other people have bookmarked. To make it easier to share bookmarks, you can also tag them and add notes.

WHAT IS: Blogging?

You might think that blogging was just "writing articles." But it isn't. To do well, you need to take on the role of editor, journalist, circulations manager, and researcher.

Blogging consists of a balance of at least three key processes. Here's a quick overview.

1) Creating content

OK - it's true. You'll need to write something.

Before you just jump in and start writing, it's worth planning ahead. It's a good idea to plan a simple editorial calendar that lists the next ten articles you'll write, and when you'll write them.

2) Promoting your content and your blog

All the writing in the world is no good unless you can get people to read it. There are many new ways to promote your blog; you'll need to spend a lot of time finding out what works for you.

3) Managing your readership

You have to keep an eye on what people are saying in your comments, and reply to them.

Weed out the obvious spam (people trying to use your blog as a place to sell Viagra, for example.)

Look at what people are saying about you on their blogs, look at what they're writing about. See if you can add to the conversation. Comment on their blogs.

You want to build up a community of readers: at first these are likely to be people you know, but if you're successful, you may meet new people.

Keep an eye on your statistics. How is your audience growing over time? Which are your most popular stories? Most blogging software will tell you this.

So if I wanted a blog of my own, where should I go?

It rather depends on what you want to do. But a couple of good places to start looking at free blogging platforms to experiment with would be:

Wordpress

TypePad

WHAT IS: A Blog?

You're reading a post on a blog right now. Chances are you knew that. Like the judge's description of pornography, you know a blog when you see it.

Nevertheless it's surprisingly difficult to define what a blog is. After all, blogs range from the personal journal to the professional output of several journalists. Blogs can be about anything; they can have many different (or overlapping) purposes.

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and swims like a duck...

We define blogs by a set of common features. Not every blog has all of them, but on the whole, if something has most of these, it's a blog.

What are the common features?

1) Reverse chronological order

New stories ('posts') appear on the front page of the blog with the newst post at the top of the page, the next newest under that and so on.

As new posts are added, older posts are pushed further down, and eventually off the front page

All posts will be archived on separate pages, which may be organised by date or topic.

2) Comments

Not all blogs have a space for reader comments, but most do. The ability to get readers involved in the article is one of the things that makes blogging interesting.

3) Permalinks

Because the pages of the blog change like this every post has a unique address which never changes. This address is a "permalink. This allows other people to share links to the specific story, rather than just the front page, or the archive page.

The permalink for this post is: http://porternovelli.typepad.com/pneo/2008/05/what-is-a-blog.html

4) Trackbacks

If I use a permalink to link to another blogger's post from my blog, my blogging software will notify the author's blogging software of the article.

An excerpt from my article may even appear in the comments section of the other author's blog.

The combination of permalinks and trackbacks means that not all reader comments need be written on the blog itself. In fact the conversation can spread over several or even many blogs, as one blogger writes an article citing and commenting on another blogger's article, reaching new readers who may in turn pick up the thread of the discussion.

5) RSS Feeds

An RSS feed is a text file that contains details about the most recent entries on a website. This file is generated automatically by the blogging software as an author posts a new story.

We'll talk about RSS elsewhere, but for now, it's worth knowing that RSS lets readers subscribe to blogs. This means that they don't have to come to the blog every day to see if there's a new post: if there is it will be delivered to them.

You can subscribe to this blog's feed in a number of ways. The easiest way would be to click the link in the right-hand column that says "Subscribe to this blog's feed" and following the instructions that follow.