I’ve recently fielded several questions stemming from the article on social networking in the New York Times that came out last week. One in particular caught my attention and I’d like to address it a bit more comprehensively.
The question was from a guy about to launch a Bed & Breakfast in Colorado and was [...]

Article from AllBusiness that was syndicated on the New York Times Web site about using social networking sites for Marketing and PR:
Social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace have become the party lines of this young century. They are inviting and intriguing and a powerful communication tool. Learning how to use them wisely [...]

Last week I participated in a forum on social networking hosted by the Tech Council of Maryland and sponsored by Vocus.  The event prompted Rebecca McClay at the Gazette to put together a couple of stories synthesizing some of the opinions and thoughts from some of the speakers at the event:

Cool, hot, sexy things
Social [...]

I spoke yesterday at an event produced by the Maryland Tech Council on ‘Growing your Business through Social Media’. The topic focused on using social media to create press. My focus was primarily on the evolution of the press release and the incorporation of social media elements into the form and practices surrounding [...]

There are strong indicators that the initial blogging rush has slowed considerably. In July 2006, there were 175,000 new blogs posted per day compared to 120,000 as of March 2007 according to Technorati and according to Gartner, there are already over 200 million ‘ex-bloggers’ accounted for.
In the midst of the blogging craze, a small percentage [...]

I am a bit surprised that this hasn’t received a bit more exposure in the mainstream media but there has been an ongoing scam being conducted on MySpace that involves the Macy’s brand.
In a nut shell, the scam works like this:
Phase I: Phishing for Credentials

The scammer (I think they are called PromotionalPalace) somehow acquires a [...]

Adweek recently published a good recap. of the social marketing landscape that lays out the current brands active in the space, and several of the companies that are attempting to bring services to market that somehow leverage word-of-mouth.
The article does a good job representing the spectrum of approaches that social marketing agencies are taking to [...]

A study was recently conducted by TWI Surveys, Inc. on behalf of the Society for New Communications Research that explored current awareness and knowledge of social media, as well as prioritization of social media. The study used a survey method amongst a sample of 260 senior PR and marcomm professionals.
According to SNCR:

70% are currently [...]

A couple days ago I attended a panel hosted by Politico.com and Waggener Edstrom, which examined the role of new media in the 2008 election campaigns. The panel was moderated by Jim VandeHei and Ben Smith from Politico, and consisted of the online communications directors from the Giuliani, Dodd, Romney, Thompson, and Biden campaigns.
They [...]

So I posted a couple of days ago about Ragan’s new social networking Web site for PR professionals and lo and behold, today I opened my comments moderation queue and amongst all the spam for pharmaceuticals I saw comments from Mark Ragan, the Ragan CEO, and David Murray, the developer who is dedicated to building [...]