What is Friendfeed?

• Friendfeed is a “social aggregator”
• In non-Valley speak: Friendfeed is like the Facebook newsfeed, except it lists all the actions you do across more than 43 sites, including YouTube, Flickr, StumbleUpon, Digg and LinkedIn
• Also like Facebook, you can share items directly into your feed.
• Most exciting: Every action in the feed becomes a blog post, letting you comment in a conversation thread

Friendfeed for Media Research

To be the good PR person that you are, you do your due diligence by reading all articles and post by your target journos and blogos–if not daily, then before you reach out to them.

With Friendfeed, you can see:

• All of their latest posts
• What they are reading
• Twitter-feed
• Pictures of the fam
• Videos

Take a look at the page from Chris Nuttall of Financial Times (click to enlarge):

You can stay up-to-date with any of the blogos or journos you follow by adding their feed to your reader.  Scroll down to the bottom of the feed and click the RSS Logo:

Get Involved With a Reporter’s/Blogger’s Community

Friendfeed isn’t just a stalking device, it’s a great opportunity for PR peeps to form relationships and have conversations not usually possible.

• Become a member of the reporter’s or blogger’s community by:
  • Adding thoughtful comments to their items
  • Participating in discussions

Check out the screenshot, below, from Robert Scoble’s feed. The red box shows you where to go to comment.  Click “more” to link to this item or share it with your feed.

Click on “more comments” (as indicated by the green box, above) to see the full conversation thread related to that action’s comments.  Robert even answers comments:

Getting Started with Friendfeed

• Sign up for a free account
• Add the info from the sites you want to share
• Add me
• Add some Reporters/Bloggers (a few listed below)
• Join “Rooms” or groups based on your interests or your clients’ industry
• Share posts, articles, interesting thoughts

Reporters and bloggers on Friendfeed

Just a small sample:

• Robert Scoble, Fast Company
• Kara Swisher, All Things D
• Michael Arrington, TechCrunch
• Dan Farber, CNET/ZDNet
• Chris Nuttall, The Financial Times
• Adam Ostrow, Mashable
• Marshall Kirkpatrick, ReadWriteWeb
• Dean Takahashi, VentureBeat
• Rob Hof, Wall Street Journal
• MG Siegler, VentureBeat
• Rafe Needleman, CNET/Webware

With Friendfeed and Twitter, you have a great non-intrusive way to get to know reporters and bloggers.  You also get the chance to join their community and share ideas.  Go ahead and give it a shot!

Also, check out the new widgets Friendfeed (like a Blogger Badge, Share This, RSS and others) has recently launched. It also looks like they are trying to speed up RSS. Cool!

Are you using Friendfeed? What has your experience been like? Like/dislike? Let us know in the comments!

Like what you read? Add our RSS feed! [what’s that?]. Or start your morning with socialTNT in your InBox! Or read Chris 24-7 on Twitter!

]]> http://socialtnt.com/2008/08/27/friendfeed-for-better-pr/feed/ 6 Chris Lynn http://socialtnt.com/2008/08/20/blogos-and-journos-theyre-just-like-us/ http://socialtnt.com/2008/08/20/blogos-and-journos-theyre-just-like-us/#comments Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:01:48 +0000 Chris Apollo Lynn http://socialtnt.wordpress.com/?p=493 Continue reading →]]> Do you ever read Us Weekly? Yeah, yeah. Of course you don’t. Neither do I…I just look at the pictures.

One of my favorite sections is “Stars–They’re Just Like US,” a regular section featuring photos of stars doing everyday things–just like us common folk. Pamela Anderson pays with a debit card–just like us! Reese Witherspoon shops in sweat pants–just like us! Jake Gyllenhaal washes his car–just like us!

What I like about this section is that it’s good to see stars looking not-so-shiny. Seeing them do the tasks we do in our lives also helps us appreciate them as “normal” people. When doing blogger or media relations, it’s important we remember they too are human.

Why am I bringing this up? Last week I was at an industry event chatting with a top-tier blogger, when s/he got a phone call from a PR person who was “just checking in” to see if the blogger was going to post their news. Bear in mind, it’s Midnight Pacific in SF, which means it’s 3 AM back on the east coast where the blogger lives.

I don’t know about you, but if anyone calls me after 10 or 11 at night, it better be an emergency–3 AM, and there better be a catastrophe!

I would have gone ballistic on the caller. The blogger, however, handled it well. When s/he hung up, I expressed my shock. S/he said “It happens all the time.” What makes it even worse is that, after polling several other top-tier bloggers over the past week, I found out that it happens to them, too.

Their painful acceptance made me cry for our industry.

Yes, bloggers are always on. And, yes, you’re doing your job to help them do their job better. But there *is* a line. Before you send an email, make a phone call, pitch them at parties, etc., ask yourself: “How would I respond to this action?”

Here are a few ways bloggers and reporters are JUST LIKE US:

• They stress at having a full inbox with over a thousand unread messages, many that probably aren’t even pertinent to them
  • I can’t drill this enough: Know who you are pitching. If you can make it personal, do so. None of us like unnecessary email. Don’t send junk
• They sometimes need to go “heads down” and hammer some work out
  • When you call, ask if they are on deadline. If they say yes, ask when the best time to call is or just apologize and cal again tomorrow
• They like to forget work and have fun at parties
  • It’s ok to talk to them, maybe introduce them to a client. Use that time to get to know them as a person and then they may be more receptive to your news at a later date
  • Don’t, I repeat, don’t pitch them
• They like their nights and weekends!
  • Don’t call them late at night. That’s just tacky. If you have a good pitch and a good relationship, then just chill.
  • If it’s late news, send the email. Follow-up in the morning. Period

They have grouchy bosses, demanding kids, bills to pay. They get angry, sad, happy. They have bad days and beautiful days. Yup, basically they are human–just like us. Be sure to treat them with the dignity and respect that we all deserve as humans on this planet.

What steps do you take before you engage with a blogger or reporter? What other ways are bloggers and reporters just like us? Let us know in the comments!

Like what you read? Add our RSS feed! [what’s that?]. Or start your morning with socialTNT in your InBox! Or read Chris 24-7 on Twitter!

Problem

Startup Z wants Blogger X to write about their new product announcement, so they send a video. Nope, not a link to YouTube. Not a link to a social media news release. Nope, they send a 60+ MB file as an attachment with no textual support. They also offer a link to a YouSendIt type place to download. Why is that a problem?

Think about it like this:

• Assumes blogger is near a connection that can download
  • Many bloggers travel like nomads going from conference to conference
• Assumes bloggger has time to download 60+ MB
  • As a rule of thumb, if you can’t send it from your email, maybe you should rethink the file size
  • Is a link better?
• Assumes blogger will open it
  • I generally don’t open unsolicited attachments for fear of computer viruses
• Assumes blogger has the proper program to play that file format
  • Sadly, we don’t have universal standards on video. Some blogos are Mac-based while other are strictly PC (shocking!)
• Assumes blogger has time/brainpower to sit and watch the video
  • At the end of the day, I just dont have the strength to watch another video

Solution

I love video more than most people in PR and applaud anyone trying to create content that tells their story in innovative ways. As we as an industry try to figure out how to integrate these new technologies into our campaigns, we may encounter a few hiccups along the way. You want journos and bloggers to be interested in the content you are creating, so be mindful when you pitch them

To make sure your video gets the attention it deserves, try these steps:

• Load the video to YouTube, Vimeo, Viddler, Blip.tv (Need help choosing? Read our review of the top video platforms)
  
• Under Embargo? Not ready for the world to see the video?
  • Blip.tv allows you to create password-protected videos. Send a link with the password to the bloggers and reporters you do want to share the vid with
  • Blip.tv also allows your viewers to download the video in a variety of formats that the viewer chooses
• Send a text summary (preferably bulleted) in the email alongside the video
  • Watching a 3 minute video may not seem like a big investment, but it is. Give journos and bloggers an alternative
  • Bullet out the key points so the journo or blogger can see if it’s something they are interested in
  • This also helps ensure that all the messages and facts you want them to pull from the video will at least be acknowledged

We all want to do the best things for our clients. Whether the video is featured in a post on a top-tier blog, inspires another post or gets picked up by several long-tail bloggers, the visual format can have a significant impact on your audiences. Just be mindful of the people you are pitching and you can guarantee your content gets the attention it deserves!

How do you pitch out your video or audio content? Let us know in the comments!

Don’t miss out: Grab our RSS feed! [what’s that?]. Or start your morning with socialTNT in your InBox! Or read Chris 24-7 on Twitter!

[The above photo, "Digital Alarm Clock" by Endless Studio on Flickr, used under Creative Commons]

I’m not being sarcastic. I’m ready to see tech PR die

Visualize with me:

• Let’s burn blast emails.
• Let’s hang (up) the phone to cold calling.
• Let’s poison fluffy, fake press releases.
• Let’s slash the idea that we can push the press into submission.

Good. Feel that weight going off your shoulders? That’s freedom.

Give yourself permission to start fresh start and do the following:

• Imagine interacting as equals.
• PR, clients, marketers and companies join the conversation.
• Don’t just read content, interact with the writers.
• Build relationships, both offline and on the Interwebs.
• Produce meaningful content, don’t just push it.
• Drop the fluff and get with the raw, insider view.
• Give the mic and the camera to your clients.
• Help them create and publish their own content.
• Then one day, a blogger or journo might find it and reach out to you!

Yes. I confess. I’m not perfect. As of today, however, I’m liberating myself from the wrong deeds of PR pros past. Join me?

What practices do you want to kill off? Confess them in the comments. Also, how do you see PR changing and what do you want to see change? Let us commune

Don’t miss out: Grab our RSS feed! [what’s that?]. Or start your morning with socialTNT in your InBox! Or read Chris 24-7 on Twitter!

[The above photo, "Paris - Île de la Cité: Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris - Confessions Dialogue" by wallyg on Flickr, used under Creative Commons]