I learn a lot from D’Arcy- even though I’ve never met him.

About a year ago, he switched his blog to Drupal from WordPress- and I felt kind of left out- no longer was I recognized on the comments- and I stopped getting an e-mail when more comments were made. The content lost some of the community. There was one post about one of D’Arcy’s friends, Sammi- getting hassled by cops because of “profiling” for terrorists- I felt I was a big part of a conversation about if the post should stay up- or not.

So- today, D’Arcy recognized that WordPress does some things way better than Drupal – and made the switch back:

Switched back to WordPress at D’Arcy Norman dot net
I’ve been using Drupal for my blog for just over a year now, and it’s been a really great platform to work in. I use it pretty much all day for projects at the U of C as well. But it just feels a bit lacking in the area of managing a personal blog, compared with WordPress which is built solely for that purpose.

I’ve been missing things like email subscriptions to comments, and some of the other niceties that WordPress has had nailed for a long time, but are missing in Drupal.

If uber geek, D’Arcy can’t make Drupal sing- at least for the community parts- I’m pretty sure others can’t.

I feel like I’ve just been let back into D’Arcy world- and am very happy.

Nothing like a live test of software to find its problems- I’ll be posting to WordPress forums soon about the problems I’ve had today- with autosave- and a latent connection.

monitoring using technorati- he uses google news feeds- a podzinger service- which transcribes podcasts- plus technorati searches- and sphere custom feed.
For company names, product names, service names- very helpful.

He’s not impressed with adsense or affiliate links. Wants to come back to it.

Start reading what people write about us- before you start writing about us.
CEOs don’t have to be brilliant all the time.

Comment moderation- have a policy-
Comment has to be relevant to the article.

Ask a ninja what is podcasting.

Talks about the advantages of podcasting- and compares to radio- all the advantages-
What is podcasting?
• Continuing audio content
• Deliverable via subscription
– Two components:
•RSS enclosure
•Podcatcher
• Listen…
– At your computer (56%)
– Burn to CD
– Any portable digital media player

Who listens to podcasts?
• 11% of adults have downloaded a
podcast
• Most penetration in 18-54 age range
– 45% of listenership is 35-44
• Gender split is even (52% male – 48% female)
• Educated
• Affluent
• Trend leaders

Podcasting advantages
• Time-shifted
– Listen when you want
• Niche-focused
– Listen to relevant content
• Detachable
– Separate it from your computer
• Audio
– Listen while doing something else
• Low barriers to entry

Anyone can podcast

Speedo- interviews competitive swimmers.

IBM and the future of – podcast he likes. Thought leaders 10 years in the future. 15 minutes each- targeted to investment fund managers.
Plays podcast- on the future of TV.

The communications fit

• Reinforce brand loyalty
• Deliver targeted messages
• Heighten awareness
• Bolster reputation

Purina uses podcasts.
Short term podcasts. Project updates- customer support.

Intranet podcasts-

• Alternative delivery for busy employees
• Ideal for sales staff, road warriors
• Hear real voices

Let’s hear some: more audio problems- Pepsi Tropicana group. Q&A session- answers from the CEO.

Short term podcasts. Project updates- customer support.

Dave Weiner gets credit for podcasts too- because of the enclosure function, Adam Curry – former MTV DJ.

150K savings from not using teleconferencing- and using podcasts and rss blogs.

Podcast hosting services that don’t charge for bandwidth libsyn
$25 a month.
Liberated syndication

I suggest using YouTube
He has a book on “How to do everything with podcasting” coming out.
Don’t produce radio- unscripted. Don’t do overt selling. Employ other forms of engagement. Ask for feedback and encourage- then incorporate it.

On search and pods.
Podzinger service- uses speech recognition software to create search abilities.
http://www.podzinger.com/about.jsp
Detailed show notes- including time codes.

Has a frappr map on his blog- a mashup of listeners.

Twitter- 140 characters – engaged in the production of a podcast and linking their listeners into the podcast – even if it’s not live.
Fox TV show- Drive twittered.
He uses radiotailripple to track his stats.

How many people are using Juice, Doppler, iTunes, flash player
Video Podcasting- more complex productions- larger files- but does same thing as audio podcasts.

But- some video podcasts don’t need the pictures. A talking head
Educational podcasting is huge.
Boston seems to be a podcasting hub.

More social media tools.
Grammar girl- short- 3 minutes-

Wikis- anyone can post, collaborative. More on intranets than on internet.
Start with Wikipedia- someone has posted about it- and if it’s about your business- you can’t edit it.
Compared Encyclopedia Britannica vs. Wikipedia on 400 scientific posts- and they had equal number of entries.

Wikis don’t have to be open to everyone-
The Employee Communications Manifesto Wiki – shel wrote it.
His book- all the writing, editing and contracting on a jotspot wiki- (jotspot now owned by Google)
Press release wiki
Project management via wiki

Social Bookmarking- aka tagging- label content, others can search.
Sometimes searching tags instead of keywords can give you better results.
Bookmark to delicious instead
Del.icio.us

John udel screencast delicious how people use tags- do 2Ful>
All social media stuff is tactics according to Shel.

Measurement: page views getting irrelevant. What matters is experience.
HITS- How Idiots Track Success.
Return on Investment
Benefits -minus cost – minus risk

Lawyers scare many away from blogging.

Influence-

• Inbound links
• Alexa ranking
• Technorati ranking

And that’s the presentation- with a few gaps- and missed links.

I’ll try to get back to these and fill them in.

Shel Holtz is showing more video with bad audio. Showcasing what shows up on youtube- and stays online forever.

Talk about User generated content- as spec work.

Embrace tools of Dialog- conversation- walls between PR and marketing are crumbling. But don’t fake it.

Leverage is with he who seizes conversation- not who starts or controls it.

Our server went down- or I was blocked by the firewall- Switched to writing in Word- instead of in WordPress in real time.

Probably due to one client who goes overbandwidth at the end of the month- every month.
Secondlife- crayonville has a Thursday morning meeting on new marketing at 9am.
Most companies think building an island- and it will solve everything-
But- what it takes is to have things that vend- the coca cola brand experience- machinima- uploaded to you tube- virtual thirst.

He’s not a gamer.
Not sure if Secondlife is the answer.
Open source software- and Open source marketing- James Cherkoff change this manifesto.
Beastie Boys- camera experience. 50 cams- shoot video- then “awesome, I Fuckin’ Shot that.
5 action steps.

• Start a blog
• Set up a linkedin profile
• Start reading feeds
• Get a secondlife.
• Subscribe to podcasts- he likes forimmediaterelease.biz

Resistance-

• People will say bad things about us
• We can’t have negative opinions on our site
• We’ll lose control of our image
• We’ll lose control of the audience.

Guess what- it will happen on your site- or elsewhere.
Brand is how I feel when I see your trademark- brand is owned by consumers.

Afternoon session: Begins with RSS.

Really Simple Syndication
no spam, no need to surf or visit sites- distributes web content to other publishers.
Still takes the same amount of time to read-

He reads 275 must read feeds daily.

Originally developed by Netscape- for the MyNetscape service. Dave Weiner developed rss 2.0, an aggregator.

He uses feed demon, it costs. We use the Sage plugin for Firefox. Feed demon uses bold and a number in brackets to show new content (2) as opposed to the star of Sage. Shel never goes to the site- he just reads the feed- on the edge.

Example of Davis California having content about the city. Asks how many people go to the City of Dayton site daily.

Siemens uses RSS for employee communications.

Using blog software as a content manager- for the rss feeds as information for clients. SharpReader which requires .net stuff.

How many people are subscribed to your RSS: it’s a file on your server- but pings will mess it up- feedburner will let you know as well-

Discussion of RSS vs downloadable desktop notifiers. I suggest you don’t want to install something on your customers desktop that could interfere with their software.

Bandwidth of feeds- if you have so many people receiving your feed- you may not want to pay for bandwidth for the whole post.

Microsoft calls them webfeeds instead of RSS

Blogs: the software-

• lightweight CMS
• reverse chronogical orders
• flexible design via templates
• Can be used for regular websites

What makes it a blog instead of a site- because you are using commenting. Turn it off- and it’s not a blog anymore. Shortening of the word WeB LOG- as opposed to the server log-

Dave Wiener- developed RadioUserland- doesn’t have commenting on- he says comment on your own blog (just like Seth Godin).

He showcases Moveable Type (on your server) from 6part- and Typepad (on their server) –

explains that University of FL got tired of waiting for IT department to post content for them. Saves money- and works.

OpensourceCMS.com to compare and use cms systems.

His blog- a shel of my former self–

Informal – emphasis on voice- many approaches to writing posts: Quick pointers and reports, longer thoughtful advice- and video etc.

External:

• Build a network of connections
• Human Touch points
• Increase search engine visibility
• grow brand visibility
• position executives

lost content again. not doing this in WordPress live anymore. So links will have to be built later.

• Employees have web access at home
– External experiences translate internally
• Faster dissemination of news
• Automatic internal RSS feeds
• Knowledge sharing
• Collaboration/brainstorming
• Institutional memory

Cathy Sierra – Creating passionate users – death threat.-
Sun about leaks: http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan/entry/a_simple_request_to_sun

Blog search tools-
Technorati only gives first page results-
Sphere
Ice rocket
Blogpulse

Subscribe to the search tools using RSS.
Thenewpr.com has blogging policies on the web.
http://www.thenewpr.com/wiki/pmwiki.php/Resources/BloggingPolicy

group knowledge sharing

monitoring using technorati- he uses google news feeds- a podzinger service- which transcribes podcasts- plus technorati searches- and sphere custom feed.
For company names, product names, service names- very helpful.