Good friend Stowe Boyd recently shared a quote by Gabriel García Márquez, “Everyone has three lives: a public life, a private life, and a secret life.”

Indeed, quite simply many of us live life allowing specific, trusted individuals to know us in one or more of our personae. Our moral compass as well as outside influences affect how we balance our three lives. The size and permeability of our personal dividers vary in the separation of each life and resemble doors that open and close based on our desires. We nurture each individually with slight coalescence, but concentrate on the establishment of a distinct ecosystem for cultivating and grooming who we are in public, private, and in secret.

The challenge, and sometimes the quiet objective, is to balance the opening and closing of each door, and to what extent, where we either intentionally or inadvertently allow our lives to touch and inspire the others. The risk however, is that with too much exposure, we may forever alter our personal standards and ultimately our identity. If the lines slowly vanish and cease to partition our compartmentalized characters, we disrupt the state, ethics, and relationships we distinctly support and preserve. A butterfly effect ensues and creates catastrophic fallout that forces mending and restoration and sometimes, complete demolition and the building of something entirely new.

For most of us, this inner struggle was delicately orchestrated and performed in seclusion and concealed in intimacy.

As Josh Harris believes, the web compels us to live in public, “The Internet is a new human experience. At first, we’re all going to like it. But, there will be a fundamental change in the human condition. One day we’re all going to wake up and realize that we’re all servants. It captured us.”

Josh Harris and Brian Solis, Sundance 2009

Harris famously experimented with technology on human behavior, much of which is captured and presented by Ondi Timoner as a powerful documentary. We Live in Public premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and earned the Grand Jury prize.

Jason Calacanis, a very good friend of Josh and part of the New York tech scene during the public broadcasting of personal lives, described Harris as a visionary, “He was always trying to advance the invertible. This is going to happen, let’s try it now.”

In the era of the social Web, however, we increasingly distort the laws and perceptions of privacy, willfully sharing details of our lives in public channels. As a result, we are perpetually resetting values, codes, and moral thresholds, exposing more about our intentions, views, and desires than we may realize or care to acknowledge.

Bowd observed, “Some people are the web equivalent of nudists: they live very open lives on the web, revealing the intimate details of their relationships, what they think of friends and co-workers, their interactions with family and authorities. But . . . even these apparently wide open web denizens may keep some things private, or secret.”

The socialization of media and the frictionless access to publishing tools and distribution channels that carry built-in audiences is creating a new genre of digital extroverts and information socialites. The desire to not only start the clock ticking towards 15 minutes of fame is only reinforced when we realize that we can extend it through the publishing of each new social object.

- It’s the pictures we share in DailyBooth that reveal our inner sanctum and persona

- It’s the personal videos we share on YouTube and Justin.tv that expose who we really are

- It’s the tweets we publish that blur the lines between status updates and vocalizing our inner monologue

The list goes on…

We are seduced and seemingly obsessed by the prospect of becoming Internet Famous and as a result, an intoxicating and addictive form of micro celebrity emerges.

In many ways, this new chapter in media represents the end of a previous state of innocence. Indeed, with Social Media, comes great responsibility…

Regardless of intent, sharing aspects of our private or secret life are no longer containable. Meaning, sharing secrets or confidential information online is the equivalent of buying billboard space. Eventually, someone will see it and it usually will include those we had hoped would not.

Thus in social media, privacy is both in contention and harmony with publicity. Social scientists, including Boyd, refer to this as “publicy.”

There is a countervailing trend away from privacy and secrecy and toward openness and transparency. . .And on the web, we have had several major steps forward in social tools that suggest at least the outlines of a complement, or opposite, to privacy and secrecy: publicy. The idea of publicy is no more than this: rather than concealing things, and limiting access to those explicitly invited, tools based on publicy default to things being open and with open access.

As Erick Schonfeld observed in a public and online discussion with Andrew Keen on Twitter, “instead of making the private public, we will make the public private. When public is the default, you deliberately select what to keep private instead of the other way around.”

Crowd Science recently published a study that measured attitudes towards social media. The goal was to understand usage patterns and behaviors around online social media, particularly MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter. Overall, the study surfaced the allure of “me” that unites fa”me” and social “me”dia.

45% reported that they want to be heard, enjoying the reactions that stem from sharing updates. The attraction of popularity leads some to either stretch the truth or reveal TMI or too much personal information. 36% believe however, that others are more concerned with what they have to say.

Attitudes Surrounding Social Media

In general, over 50% are either unsure, ambivalent or feel that they spend too much time online engaging and contributing to social media while 49% feel their time is rightly focused. 14% state that they often neglect important activities to spend time on online social media.

I was captivated by the sentiment of those social media users who contributed reluctantly, feeling pressure from others, or from fear of losing social status. 12% agree that stopping/reducing usage of online social media would be damaging to their social status.

As well, the emergence of regret seems to only grow in importance as we cast digital shadows. 25% of online social media users reportedly have said things on online social media that theyʼve later regretted.

Social Media provides a window into the lives of those whom we follow. Sometimes, the view is tempting.

Almost 50% of social media users donʼt necessarily disagree (and 20% agree) that other peopleʼs lives are more interesting than their own.

We are witnessing how we view, forge, and value relationships. While many prefer to maintain direct or in-person contact, a growing number prefer the empowerment of expressing themselves online.

32% of respondents suggest that they would rather communicate with friends/contacts through online social media than by telephone. And, while 80% disagree that social media is preferable to face-to-face contact, almost 10% prefer to use online social media instead.

And what of privacy or at least the semblance of a new form of separating our public from our private and secret lives? 76% care about privacy, but 14% are uncertain and 11% have no concern.

Self expression may have served as an appetizer in the societal buffet of new media, however, current behavior reflects a migration towards narcissism, fueling a transformation from conversational ecosystems to self-serving egosystems.

As mentioned earlier, 45% really ‘like it’ when people notice them. Over 1/3 feel that people are interested in what they have to say. 10% stretch the truth when portraying themselves online with 18% assuming a neutral position on the subject. 16% believe it’s important to maintain a flock of friends with 21% on the fence about the subject.

16% admitted to revealing things about themselves on online social media that they wouldnʼt under any other circumstances (14% remained neutral).

I refer to this phenomenon as the Verizon Network Theory (until I can come up with a better name.) We gain confidence in online interaction reinforced by every new update, follower, retweet, public @ (acknowledgment), and linkback. I suggest that this may actually have a positive impact on society as we then carry this new found courage back into the real world, supported by our invisible army of supporters who define our social graph. We carry this unseen support framework with us wherever we go.

Gender

In an interesting observation, Crowd Science suggests that there are no significant differences between males and females with the exception of specific attributes and within certain age groups.

We all know in Social Media, women rule…

54% of female study participants over age 21 who use social media vs. 38% of males of the same age believe they spend far too much time on online social media. One half more females than males over the age of 30 (45% vs. 29%) believe that most people are interested in what they have to say on social media.

Almost 25% of female social media users over 20 years old report that they use online social media much more than their friends/contacts – twice the proportion of males (13%).

Age Trends

35% of teens believe social media offers a unique opportunity to present personal facts about themselves that they wouldnʼt reveal under other circumstances. 40% posted or said things on social media that they have later regretted.

Significantly larger proportions of those under age 30 would consider it extremely damaging to their social status if they stopped or reduced their usage of online social media, compared with their older counterparts.

46% of teens and 38% of respondents aged 18-29 believe they spend too much time on social media.

Publicy vs. Branding

In describing publicy, Laurent Haug paints a picture of what he refers to as the “plausible you,” but it is his idea around new privacy and intention that serves as the light at the end of the tunnel:

Now that you are back in the driver seat, you have your privacy back. Just of a different kind. You have built a space that could be called “publicy”, or “the plausible me”. It is a credible space where people expect to see information about you. Whatever credible information you say in there will be taken as true by the world. That is your new privacy. A space that is public but that you control, where you can say anything you want and have it taken as true.

In Social Media, it is our responsibility to define who we are and why we are significant. Who we are online is formed by an assemblage of everything we contribute – whether intended or not. Regardless of medium, we save ourselves from ourselves through the practice of restraint and the recognition that we are what we share. The socialization of media distributes pieces of us across the Web and without our knowledge, they are reassembled at will, without our ability to directly shape perception. Thus, our digital shadow is a reflection of our persona and reputation and therefore requires dedication to the active, thoughtful shaping and feeding of the “brand you” through everything you share.  In doing so, we dictate who we are today as well as who we become tomorrow and over time. The doors between public, private, and secret must remain discrete and preserved. While we embrace an era of publicy, we do not relinquish privacy, for without it, we fulfill the prediction of becoming servants of the Web instead of its engineers and conductors.

Connect with Brian Solis: Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Facebook
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As one of the founding members of the Media 2.0 Workgroup, I contribute to the greater collective of intellectual activity dedicated to advancing media and communication.

Fellow members, Chris Saad and Stowe Boyd have been discussing the ethics and best practices around social media and social tools specifically with Eric Blantz and Khris Loux with specific regard to JS-Kit. Independently, I have also discussed and supported a more people-focused approach to connecting with courtesy of those companies that continually force the discussion by upsetting the balance between brand and community.

Facebook’s introduction of its new Terms of Service (ToS) was the most recent example of what not to do. Facebook also learned from this occurrence and created a new paradigm for user generated governance (UGG) empowering its community of users with the ability to contribute to the process of policy making.

The work of Eric Blantz, Khris Loux, Chris Saad and Stowe Boyd was presented to the Media 2.0 Workgroup for evaluation, sculpting, and ultimately introduction to the greater community to serve as inspiration for any business that seeks guidance when engaging users, customers, and peers.

Version 1.0 is currently hosted at www.mediabestpractices.com for interaction and collaboration.

The initial group includes the following: Chris Saad, Khris Loux (On Behalf of JS-Kit), Eric Blantz, Stowe Boyd, Micah Baldwin (On behalf of Lijit), Ben Metcalfe, Marianne Richmond, Jeremiah Owyang, Daniela Barbosa, Peter Kim, Loïc Le Meur (on behalf of Seesmic/Twhirl), Deborah Schultz and me.

Related Posts on PR 2.0:
- Barack Obama and User Generated Governance
- Facebook and the Reality of Your Online Content
- The Socialization of Your Personal Brand
- In the Social Web, We Are All Brand Managers
- Facebook is the Hub for Your Personal Brand
- Facebook is a Beacon for Bad PR
- Mark Zuckerberg Listens and Responds to Beacon Crisis
- Beware the Things You Share in the World of Social Media
- The Essential Guide to Social Media
- The Art and Science of Social Media and Community Relations

In the era of the Social Web, transparency, engagement, and a commitment to authentically connect people to your story are essential principles for practicing successful and meaningful Public Relations.

Concurrently, the socialization of media is creating new communities and communications channels that are empowering journalists, bloggers, analysts, as well as everyday people, to actively and passionately contribute, share, and discover the stories around us. It’s changing the information ecosystem.

Media and communications professionals must stay connected and work together now more than ever to compete against the amplifying volume and frequency of information.

Stowe Boyd and I, in development with Christopher Peri, are contributing to the improvement of communications and relationships between media and PR.

PR + Media + Twitter = @MicroPR

If you don’t have time to read the entire post, here’s a quickstart guide:

• Journalists, bloggers, and analysts, send a tweet to @micropr (www.twitter.com/micropr) with what you need help with. The PR subscribers will read it and only those who can help will respond. Always start your message with @micropr.

• PR, follow @micropr to monitor the inbound reqests from the media and to determine how you can help. This is a listening and response service for you, not a broadcast channel. Do not send a message to @micropr unless you need the assistance of the PR community.

• If you want to refer to micropr on Twtter please use the hashtag, #micropr.

Remember, this is BETA, so if something goes wrong or if you have suggestions, please send me a message via @ or DM.

For those who wish to learn more about MicroPR, please continue…
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PR

As PR professionals, we’re driven to proactively identify relevant editorial and publicity opportunities to link our respective companies to the stories currently in progress. Today, we most likely use a combination of direct editorial calendars and services such as MyEdCals.com, Profnet, HARO (HelpaReporterOut.com), Vocus, among maintaining day-to-day relations with our contacts to stay in sync.

Media

Journalists, analysts, and bloggers face constant deadlines and experience practically impossible tasks of managing expansive networks of PR representatives, experts, and spokespeople who represent particular industries.

Twitter

Twitter is nothing short of phenomenal and it only continues to experience incredible growth in both traffic and users – currently at six million registered people. It has created a dedicated, vibrant community that will fundamentally change and improve the communications channel between media and PR.

@MicroPR

Introducing MicroPR (@micropr on twitter) a new, free service on Twitter that advocates the shift from Public Relations’ traditional broadcast pitch methodology to one of listening and individual response.

Through Twitter, MicroPR connects journalists and bloggers to qualified, targeted PR professionals who can help you with the stories you’re currently writing.

How MicroPR Works

MicroPR is an automated, solution designed for simplicity.

For Bloggers, journalists, analysts, when you need help with a story:

1. Send a public message on twitter to @MicroPR.

2. Your tweet will automatically retweet from the MicroPR account to the PR and communications professionals monitoring the stream or the feed.

3. A knowledgeable PR person following the #MicroPR feed will see your individual request and respond directly via your preferred channel.

Basically, you’re inviting the community to help crowdsource elements of your story to streamline the process of story development, reducing research time and improving its quality and accuracy.

Tip: try to keep your request under 140 characters as the Twitter community may also retweet your request through their personal accounts.

Tip #2: Share @micropr with your entire editorial department and community. The process will only improve the more you use it.

For Public Relations Professionals, either follow MicroPR or subscribe to the RSS feed on Twitter. You can also run active searches for “@MicroPR” on Search.Twitter.com or TweetScan.

Examples for Journalist, Bloggers, Analysts:

- Writers looking for help with on story development can send a tweet, “@micropr Need startup recommendations for story on new micromedia tools. Reply via public tweet to @reportername” (112 characters).

- Journalists, analysts and bloggers can share that they do or do not want to be pitched via Twitter and other micromedia tools. They can also announce their specific preferences for contact.

- They could declare what sorts of microPR they want (or don’t want) to receive, and in what mode — @public messages or direct/private.

- A writer can share relevant beats @micropr beats = #social #web #networks #automotive #environment
#politics.

- Conference and awards organizers can call for speakers or submissions.

- Media can also block certain PR people who are doing it wrong.

- Other services could include scheduling calls and or meetings, etc.

Examples for PR and Marketing Professionals:

- This is mostly a tool for media to reach out to you, so please don’t abuse the @micropr channel.

- If you’re looking for strategic partners or information from the PR community, feel free to send a tweet to @micropr.

- Do not use MicroPR to proactively pitch media on Twitter. Stowe Boyd and I will be introducing TwitPitch shortly.

Tip: if you want to talk about MicroPR on Twitter and don’t wish for it to appear in the stream, use the Hash Tag, #MicroPR. For example, “I really love #MicroPR because it helps me build new relationships.”

M1cr0PR.com – A Wiki to Support the Refinement of @MicroPR

First, bookmark www.m1cr0pr.com.

M1cr0PR.com is a central resource for communications professionals to learn more about the principles, methodologies, and tools to enhance your relationships through brevity, fidelity, and clarity.

It is a community-powered wiki that features:
- A list of journalists, bloggers, and analysts on Twitter and their Twitter IDs
- A directory of Micromedia Tools for PR
- Links to helpful discussions on improving PR
- In the future, we’ll also feature an FAQ page (feel free to start one)

A Draft List of Media Currently on Twitter v2.0

Hopefully, this list triggered a Google Alert. This is your invitation to use @micropr to help you source information from the PR community without getting inundated with irrelevant pitches and responses.

Please note that this list is in the process of being updated and corrected over at www.m1cr0pr.com.

Adam Boulton, Sky News UK,
Allen Stern, CenterNetworks
Amanda Congdon, AmandaCongdon.com
Ana Marie Cox, Time.com
Anthony Ha, VentureBeat
Arthur Germain , Brand Telling
Bicyclemark, Citizen Reporter
Brent Terrazas, Brentter.com
Brian Morrissey, Adweek
C Kirkham, Times-Picayune
Carlo Longino, MobHappy
Caroline McCarthy, News.com
Chris Shipley
Chris Ziegler, Engadget
D Sarno, L.A. Times
Dan Farber, CNET
Dan Kaplan, VentureBeat
Dan Thomas, WSJ
Daniel Terdiman, Cnet
Darren Waters, BBC News
Dave Slusher, Evil Genius Chronicles
Dave Winer, Media Hacker
David Griner, Luckie.com
David Kirkpatric, Fortune
David Lidsky, Fast Company
David Wescott, Its Not A Lecture Blog
Dawn Foster, Fast Wonder
Dean Takahashi, Venture Beat
Doc Searls,
Dwight Silverman, Houston Chronicle
Dwight Silverman, Houston Chronicle
Dylan Tweeny, Wired.com
Elisabeth Lewin, PodcastingNews
Eric Schonfeld, TechCrunch
Eric Zeman, PhoneScoop
Etan Horowitz, Orlando Sentinel
Ginny Skal, NBC 17 Raleigh
Graeme Thickins, Tech~Surf~Blog
Harry McCracken, Technologizer
Heather Green, BusinessWeek
Henry Blodget, Silicon Alley Insider
Houston Chronicle, Houston Chronicle
Hugh MacLeod, Gaping Void
Jacqui Cheng, Ars Technica
Jason Calacanis, Mahalo
Jeff Pulver, Pulver Blog
Jemima Kiss, JemimaKiss.com + The Gaurdian
Jim Long, NBC
Jim Louderback, Revision3
Joel Johnson, BoingBoing
John Dickerson, Slate
John Dvorak, Dvorak Blog
John Markoff, NYT Bits Blog
John Paczkowski, AllThingsD
Jonathan Fingas, Electronista
Justin Beck, SF Chronicle
Justine Ezerik, Tasty Blog Snack
Kara Andrade, Maynard Institute
Kara Swisher, AllThingsD.com
Katie Fehrenbacher, Earth 2 Tech
Kevin Allison, Financial Times
Kristen Nicole, VentureBeat
Laura Lorek, My San Antonio Blog
Leo Laporte, Leoville.com
Lisa Picarille, Revenue Magazine
Liz Gannes, GigaOm
Loren Steffy, HoustonChronicle
Louis Gray, LouisGray.com
Marc Canter,
Mark Glaser, PBS
Mark Hopkins, Mashable
Mark Krynsky, Lifestream Blog
Marshall Kirkpatrick, Read Write Web
Mathew Ingram, MathewIngramBlog
Matt Buchanan, Gizmodo
MG Siegler, Paris Lemon + VentureBeat
Michael Banovsky, Banovsky Blog
Michael Singer, InformationWeek
Mike Arrington, TechCrunch
Mike Butcher, TechCrunch UK
Mike Cassidy, SJ MercNews
Molly Wood, CNET
Natali del Conte, CNET
Om Malik, GigaOM
Owen Thomas, Valleywag
Pete Cashmore, Mashable
Peter Ha, CrunchGear
Peter Rojas, Engadget
Rafe Needleman, Webware
Richard MacManus, ReadWriteWeb
Robert Hof, BusinessWeek
Robert Scoble, Fast Company
Robert W. Anderson, Expert Texture
Ryan Block
Saleem Kahn, tech journalist
Sam Whitmore, Media Survey
Sarah Lacy, BusinessWeek
Sarah Perez, Read Write Web
Saul Hansell, NY Times
Steve Baker, BusinessWeek
Steve Gillmor,
Steve Spaulding, How to Split an Atom
Stewart Alsop, StewartAlsop.com
Stowe Boyd, /Message
Tannette Elie, Milwaukee Journal
The Guy Report, ESPN &Playboy;
Tod Maffin, CBC
Tom Foremski, Silicon Valley Watcher
Tom Merritt, CNET
Tricia Dureyee, MoCoNews
Veronica Belmont, Revision3
Walt Mossberg, AllThingsD/WJS
Wayne Sutton, NBC 17 Raleigh

Warning to PR: Only contact reporters and bloggers using their preferred methods and channels. Do not send spam. Doing so will not only get you blacklisted, but will also get you blocked on Twitter.

Stowe says it best, “On Twitter, I will simply block people that abuse my willingness to have an open dialog about products with PR folks, or basically anyone else, for that matter.”

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Special thanks to Brad Mays and Evan Solomon for their priceless participation and advice.
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MicroPR on Twitter by Brian Solis http://documents.scribd.com/ScribdViewer.swf?document_id=8479271&access_key=key-9l2ymvujydd516lf0al&page=1&version=1&viewMode=list
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The escalator is the new elevator when it comes to pitching and the emerging practice of micro public relations.

While some bloggers and reporters are actively blacklisting PR people, whether it’s fair or not, it’s not truly fixing or changing anything at a grand scale – at least not yet. I’m part of a growing number of PR folks who are committed to sharing stories, experiences, tools, practices, and ideas on how to specifically fix the relationships between PR and influencers.

But, it’s not only PR people who are guilty of unfocused and irrelevant storytelling (spam), it’s also company executives and founders who lose a bit of perspective during the reality and grind of product development. In a sense, it puts the blinders on making it incredibly difficult for entrepreneurs to transcend their passion into something more substantial to those outside of their day-to-day ecosystem. This doesn’t only correlate to bad or even worse, zero publicity, it affects everything from financing to business development to valuation.

So, I’m here throwing my hat into the ring to also help company executives, as well as PR representatives, condense their pitch into something more palatable, important, promising, and also intriguing. This is an exercise in how you can help those that matter to your business quickly get to the point where they want to know more about your company.

We’ve all heard of the elevator pitch.

As our attention span thins and tests the true extent of our elasticity, many are finding that most businesses still can’t tell their story quickly and concisely without superlatives, buzzwords, technical jargon, and deafening marketing speak. The answer to “what do you do?” doesn’t yield much, usually requiring the person listening to ask further qualifying questions in order to get a truly meaningful and relevant answer.

I’m sorry to say that most people don’t have the time, patience, or attention to continually ask for more information – nor should they. The onus is on you to tell your story in a way that helps them get it, almost instantly. And, you want them to do something about what they’re hearing, not just nod their head in agreement.

That’s right. Forget the elevator pitch, it’s time to hop on an escalator to a more effective company pitch.

Introducing the escalator pitch.

My good friend Stowe Boyd, recently introduced the concept of the #TwitPitch, a very streamlined way for using Twitter to simplify the process of booking briefings with companies during the show. It forced companies to distill their message in 140 characters, which, in the process, will hopefully tighten and streamline the typical elevator pitch. As Stowe says, “I think twitpitch takes the elevator pitch to new brevity: the escalator pitch.”

The idea of the escalator pitch is game changing and powered by the brevity that takes place on Twitter every minute of every day. It inspires us to embrace brevity and relevance outside of twitter, in the real world, to help people “get” what we do and why they should care.

I’ve been on the receiving end of elevator pitches for years, and I can honestly tell you that most are much longer than most elevator rides and most certainly, very difficult to discern the value within each – regardless of whether or not the product or service is indeed promising or revolutionary. Simply said, don’t assume that anyone is going to see things the way you do.

Several factors usually contribute to ineffective pitches:

1- Lack of presence or conviction

2- Absence of enthusiasm or the over reliance on enthusiasm

3 – Inability to connect with audience

4 – Not knowing who the audiences really are

5 – Dilution of the story with buzzwords and jargon

6 – The story is missing the human factor

7 – No insight for how this changes the world

8 – The path for the future is usually shortsighted

9 – The connection to “what’s in it for me” or “how does this improve my flow” are usually missing

10 – A call-to-action is usually overlooked

11 – The misperception that no competition exists

With the introduction of the escalator pitch, spokespersons now face a greater challenge, and with it, a new opportunity, to make a first and lasting impression.

BusinessWeek recently published an article on the philosophy and potential of the escalator pitch and micropitching as a new art form. It featured insight from Stowe and also a quote from yours truly.

The article states that Stowe’s “experiment offers a lesson for small companies that want the attention of potential investors, clients, and press: Get to the point.”

In the article, I was asked to answer what makes a good escalator pitch? I answered, “Brevity and relevance. It’s about focus and precision, and it needs to be aligned and presented in a way that reflects who you write to and why it’s beneficial to your readers.”

BusinessWeek further summarized my series of responses, “That means tailoring your message to your audience. Tell investors how you’re going to make money, tell customers how you’re going to solve their problems, and tell bloggers why their readers should care.”

According to a Sequoia Capital investor, when Sergey Brin and Larry Page (the Google founders for those who don’t know) first approached the firm, their passion, brevity, and clear vision was contagious and inspiring. It’s now known as the eight-word pitch that opened the door to further conversations. The founding duo stated that Google would provide “access to the world’s information in one click.”

It’s about saying and demonstrating the things that will continually escalate your opportunity to the next level to say and demonstrate more – earning believers, evangelists, investors, stakeholders, customers, and partners along the way.

In the spirit of TwitPitch and the escalator pitch, Stowe and I last week announced MicroPR, a new service to help connect PR and media/bloggers on Twitter through the practice of pitching from concentrate – again emphasizing succinctness. MicroPR leverages micromedia, starting with Twitter, to connect journalists, bloggers, analysts and PR/marketing together in an efficient, unobtrusive, targeted, and productive way.

I highly recommend that reporters, journalists, bloggers, analysts, and anyone looking for support in story development use it to connect with communications professionals. Likewise, PR people should follow @micropr in order to see these requests as they appear in the Twitter stream.

In its Alpha form, MicroPR will help channel information, starting as a service for media to source stories, share their preferences for receiving information, announce change of beats, call for speakers or awards submissions, or anything that needs to hit a very focused list of savvy and connected PR professionals. Media, bloggers, and PR people, THIS IS A MUST READ.

Get on the Escalator

Honestly, condensing and elevating your pitch and matching it to the specific audience can only help recruit supporters. It’s storytelling, except the story is written 100 different ways – all equally compelling. And, it’s cognizant and representative of to whom you’re speaking. Investors want to know how what you’re doing is going to add value to a market and how and why they’re going to embrace it – as well as evaluating the prospect for financial gain. Customers need to hear how what you do solves problems or pains that they may have – or may soon experience. Those customers also have different needs determined by their marketplace. The same is true for the reporters and bloggers who are regarded as resources by each customer demographic – they need to hear things specific to their workflow and community.

The same exercises and practices of micro messaging are critical for helping company spokespersons distill their story for every step of the business process, from funding to sales to exit, in order to seed interest and support and grow the business opportunity as well as the bottom line and overall valuation.

Take it seriously, you are not above improvement.

Assume you have one shot at getting someone excited about what you’re doing, because, technically, you do.

Make sure to clearly express who this is different than anything else out there and how it benefits the people who’ll use it.

Get friendly feedback.

Rehearse your pitch, continually.

Tighten it.

Evolve it based on reactions.

Share your story in 60 seconds or less, each and every time.

Shape it to include the key points specific to the group to whom you’re speaking.

If you can nail it on an escalator, the elevator pitch will seem like a luxury.

Going up?

Connect with me on Twitter, Jaiku, LinkedIn, Pownce, Plaxo, FriendFeed, Tumblr, or Facebook.

New media is forcing the rapid evolution of communications and is reinventing the science of public relations into the art of “personalized” relations. And, with micromedia further refining and improving how we communicate with each other, PR is going to learn the hard way, that the days of blasts and untargeted spam pitching will get us nowhere with today’s influencers.

Stowe Boyd placed a stake in the ground during the Web 2.0 Expo with the introduction of #TwitPitch, a very streamlined way for using Twitter to simplify the process of booking briefings with companies during the show. It forced PR to distill their message in 140 characters, which, in the process, tightened and streamlined the typical elevator pitch. As Stowe says, “I think twitpitch takes the elevator pitch to new brevity: the escalator pitch.”

It worked so well that Stowe has officially decided to only accept PR pitches via #TwitPitch.

In this turbulent climate of blogger and media relations – or lack thereof – with PR people, brevity inspires and dictates forethought and relevance. It’s what PR should be practicing whether it’s 140 characters for 200 words.

PR not only stands for Public Relations, we’re now expanding it to also represent the era of Personalized Relations. This is the practice of matching our stories with the preferences of those we wish to reach. Yes, it’s what PR should have been all along, but it’s not.

Twitter is proving to be a marvelous representation of people coming together online to share and discover new information in ways that weren’t possible, or predictable, before today. It has effectively created a new channel for casual conversation as well as a full-blown broadcast network for breaking news as it happens. For many of us, we’ve heard “it” first on Twitter.

What if Twitter also became a hub for newsmakers and influencers to seek information before the story was officially news? With the globally diverse and connected community, Twitter harnesses the true wisdom of the crowds to ask and receive specific information instantly.

Introducing MicroPR.

Stowe Boyd and I are collaborating to find and share new and helpful ways of using micromedia, starting with Twitter, to connect journalists, bloggers, analysts and PR/marketing together in an efficient, unobtrusive, targeted, and productive way.

We’re starting with Twitter in large part because Stowe is already proving that the concept works and also, because journalists, bloggers, and analysts are flocking to Twitter – actively using it more than much larger social networks such as Facebook. (see partial working list below). MicroPR will become the epicenter that connects information, sources, and stories on Twitter and eventually across other social networks.

In Stowe’s words…

MicroPR: forcing PR firms to approach us in the open, on open social flow apps like Twitter, and in the small, where they have to jettison all the claptrap of the old press release model. In the open, that can’t lie easily, or they will be caught on it. In the small, they have to junk the meaningless superlatives, the bogus quotes that no CEO ever mouthed, the run-on phrases, the disembodied third party mumbo jumbo, as if the press release were edited by God.

Using MicroPR

PR people, subscribe to the @MicroPR feed and definitely follow it on Twitter. You can also run active searches or feeds on Summize or TweetScan.

Bloggers, journalists, analysts, send a public message @MicroPR when you want to reach PR professionals. The @tweet will get an auto retweet from the MicroPR account.

In its Alpha form, MicroPR will help channel information, starting as a service for media to source stories, share their preferences for receiving information, announce change of beats, call for speakers or awards submissions, or anything that needs to hit a very focused list of savvy and connected PR professionals.

If you’re asking why you would need to use the service if you already have followers on Twitter, MicroPR will connect you to a broader, more effective network of resources for stories today and in the future.

Examples of usage:

- Reporters looking for help with on story development can send a tweet, “@micropr Need startup recommendations for story on new micromedia tools. Reply via public tweet to @reportername” (112 characters).

- Journalists and bloggers can declare that they do or do not want to be pitched via Twitter and other micromedia tools. They can also announce their specific preferences for contact.

- They could declare what sorts of microPR they want (or don’t want) to receive, and in what mode — @public messages or direct/private.

- A writer can share relevant beats @micropr beats = #social #micromedia #networks #media #infrastructure #hosting.

- Conference and awards organizers can call for speakers or submissions.

- Media can also block certain PR people who are doing it wrong.

- Other services could include scheduling calls and or meetings, etc.

The options, capabilities, and feature-set will expand over time (with input from the community), but in the meantime, MicroPR is an effective channel to connect people to relevant information in order to be more productive. And, it also serves as one of the necessary foundations that will help shape the future of more personalized and effective communications, teach PR professionals how to listen, respond, and pursue more targeted and relevant outreach.

NOTE: PR, please do not send @micropr messages unless you want that note to be broadcast to other PR people. If you want to refer to it on Twitter, please use the hashtag #micropr.

—-

Journalists and Bloggers on Twitter Alpha v1.0
Please note that this list is in the process of being updated and corrected and will ultimately reside on a public wiki. In the meantime, please contact me with changes and suggestions, or if you wish your name to be removed from the list. PR, be sure to follow your favorites.

Warning: Only contact reporters and bloggers using their preferred methods and channels. Do not send spam. Doing so will not only get you blacklisted, but will also get you blocked on Twitter.

Stowe says it best, “On Twitter, I will simply block people that abuse my willingness to have an open dialog about products with PR folks, or basically anyone else, for that matter.”

—

I’d also like to specifically thank Chris Peri (on Twitter) for helping us with the process of retweeting and also Todd Defren, Sam Whitmore, Chris Lynn, Brad Mays, and many, many others for contributing to the directory of media actively using Twitter today.

Additional Resources on PR 2.0:

- In Blogger and Media Relations, You Earn the Relationships You Deserve
- The Evolution of Press Releases
- Making Mistakes and Amends in Blogger and Media Relations
- PR 2.0: Putting the Public Back in Public Relations
- Free ebook: The Art and Science of Blogger Relations
- Dear Chris Anderson, an Open Letter to Make Things Right

Connect with me on Twitter, Jaiku, LinkedIn, Pownce, Plaxo, FriendFeed, or Facebook.

Earlier this year, I wrote “The Value of Online Conversations,” to share and talk through my thoughts related to improving the quality of online discussions in the face of potential degradation and decentralization of important online discussions.

We live in the era of Social Media, which represents the socialization of content and conversations as well as the creation of communities around thoughts and ideas. People are the hubs of information and we’re witnessing the creation of mini-societies that expand, contract, and connect online and offline. This new paradigm for discovering, distributing and forging relationships based on thought leadership is inspiring and defining significant social and technological progression as well as conversational frameworks.

As Social Media evolves, the value of online conversations is becoming distributed and decentralized. As the host of any given conversation, it is almost impossible to expect your community to discover or congregate around your content in any one given place, especially the point of origin. It’s both the challenge and the promise of micromedia and social networks. The comments section of your blog, for example may not truly represent the community response or reaction because it may thrive across other disparate networks and communities, whether you’re aware of it or not.

And concurrently, those conversations that matter to you, from both a learning and sharing perspective, span a vast array of networks where you’re already participating as well as the networks you may not know exist.

Conversations might have thrived in comments for several years, but those conversations are also augmenting and migrating through thriving micromedia and active social networks. However, it’s important to note and also to remember, that conversations aren’t necessarily limited to comments either. Blog posts that are inspired by thoughts shared in other posts also contribute to and extend conversations and they only increasing in volume and frequency – regardless of whether the platform is traditional (such as WordPress or Blogger) or published on the emerging category of microblogs and micro media (such as Twitter, Jaiku, Utterz, Seesmic, Pownce, etc.)

Dan Farber of CNET recently discussed the importance of the blogosphere and its ability to help conversations evolve. He observed, “Moving the conversation forward is what the blogosphere does best. It starts with an original thought or angle, a scoop of perception, and others add their own perspectives and discoveries to the data pool. You end up with a rich “web” of information and links about a particular item.”

Sarah Perez recently tackled the subject on ReadWriteWeb, where she observed that conversations are only increasing in volume and frequency, “The truth of the matter is, like it or not, the conversations that once existed solely in the blogosphere have now moved on. People still comment, but in a lot of cases, those comments aren’t on found on the blog itself. So the question is, has the conversation become diluted among all the different services and applications? Or is it just adding layers to the original topic?”

Sarah also spotlights tools and shares tips to stay connected to the conversations that matter to you.

Indeed, conversations are no longer relegated to blogs. Nor are they limited to any one community. Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook, et al, are not only online neighborhoods (or trendy tools), but they are also forums where your contacts may choose to share their reaction and thoughts directly with you instead of immortalizing those thoughts in the comments section of your blog. Conversations are not only adding layers to the original topic, they’re also more visible and influential than ever before.

After publishing my last several posts, I’ve noticed that a majority of feedback poured in at Twitter and Facebook, which complemented the blog, but also distributed the conversation nonetheless.

Is this a bad thing?

No. It’s just a reminder, that whether you’re a content producer or reacting to the thoughts of someone else, that all feedback accumulates into a repository of collected thought leadership, or lack thereof.

Since the best conversationalists are also the best listeners, the evolution of participatory media requires you to focus your attention across multiple networks in order to invest in the conversations that have value to you.

The investment isn’t inexpensive either. It requires your expertise, time, and attention. All this at a time, when many are already suffering from Social Network Fatigue. By not participating, you’re intentionally withdrawing your brand (or your company’s) brand from the conversation and creating an opportunity for your competition to steal the attention. Your community of strategic contacts is reflective of what you put into it. Since it’s an investment, you earn the relationships and the value that you deserve.

This requires focus and value-add. It requires participation. It doesn’t promote or encourage the practice of lobbing ideas over network walls with the hopes people will find it, discuss it, and promote it. Although the “online you” is distributed, it should also be concerted. The investment in value-added, distributed participation elevates your expertise, grows your online brand and contributes to your overall social capital, but it’s not easy.

Loic Le Meur, founder of video conversational community Seesmic, sparked a “distributed” series of online conversations. He charted his social map and made a noteworthy case to re-centralize content and conversations, in his case, back to his blog.

We used to have our social online presence very centralized, for me it was my blog. The current trend is very interesting, everything is decentralized and we only use the best services by type of media (text, photos, video, music, events etc). Everything we post is totally decentralized this is why tools like Mybloglog, Friendfeed and Socialthing start to gather all of these for us and it is a great idea.

The challenge for Friendfeed and the like is that while I really like all my services gathered in one place, I would rather that these would be centralized on my blog instead of a third party service.

It’s not an unreasonable request, and would in fact, inject a level of sanity, control, and management back into the equation of creating socialized content, but as Stowe Boyd puts it, “I think that day is done.”

Stowe continues:

Basically, conversation is moving from a very static and slow form of conversation — the comments thread on blog posts — to a more dynamic and fast form of conversation: in
to the flow in Twitter, Friendfeed, and others. I think this directionality may be like a law of the universe: conversation moves to where is is most social. Personally, I don’t think the genie can be put back in the bottle.

The truth is that we are embracing new tools because they’re are either intriguing and fascinating to us and/or because those within our social graph are also adopting them to stay connected and participate in distributed online conversations.

We are responsible for the decentralization of our content and our attention. We need to embrace it focus.

I created a Social Map that outlines where I create, discover, collaborate, and socialize and it serves as a stark reminder that I am distributed and there’s no turning back – at least not yet.

I participate in the communities where I find value and where I can in turn contribute to the value. It is distributed. It is decentralized. However, it is this way because each community sustains its own unique culture, a culture that is only partially represented through the latest crop of aggregators and activity hubs such as FriendFeed, SocialThing, and Ping.fm.

Michael Arrington of TechCrunch also introduced the notion of Data Portability into the mix and it does open up some interesting possibilities for helpful solutions.

Data Portability may turn out to be the answer that people are looking for. And it may turn out to be a sort of anti-FeedFriend. The whole point of Data Portability is to get social networks talking to each other and exchanging user data, with their explicit permission. Want to add your flickr photos, twitter messages and YouTube Videos to your blog? Data Portability is working to help make that happen through consensus driven policies and procedures. In essence, data portability embraces the Decentralized Me, but lets users re-centralize it wherever they please.

I embrace and invest my attention in those communities that offer a return. It isn’t much more scalable as it is and I may adopt new tools to help me participate through an aggregated fashion if I can do so without losing the context of the conversation stream and the overall culture.
I am but one person. Businesses, on the other hand, have an opportunity to scale with the conversations that represent the ability to deliver value to each respective community as well as its bottom line.

The reward for participating and adding value to these conversations is Social Capital. The penalty for self-promotion, one-sided conversations, or lack of genuine participation is evident in the lack of apparent ROI as well as the lack of respect you’re granted.

The centralization of the decentralized me starts with identifying the communities of value instead of merely trend surfing. Cultivate relationships where those relationships benefit from your participation, which in turn, ultimately help you. Creating a complex social map isn’t the end-game. Creating a social map that outlines the distributed conversations that impact you or your brand is the goal. Identifying these opportunities and observing the cultures of each community will help you determine the resources and time investment required.

The best conversationalists are also the best listeners. Conversations are distributed and the tools for finding them are available and increase in functionality every week. It requires a proactive approach to find them, for they may not necessarily find you.

Recommended Reading:

Gary Vaynerchuk Puts the Social in Social Media

The Art of Listening and Engagement

The Social Media Manifesto

Conversational Marketing

Facebook is the Hub for Your Personal Brand

Connect with me on Twitter, Jaiku, LinkedIn, Pownce, Plaxo, FriendFeed, or Facebook.
blog

twitter is the message heard around the world – so to speak or so to read.

It’s an incredible phenomenon that is spreading faster than online parodies of Snakes on a M F Plane…and in my opinion, it has to be the fastest growing social tool out there right now.

It’s everywhere, anywhere messaging so that you can stay in touch with friends, fans, stalkers, and associates whether on the Web, instant messaging, or through text messaging. Each update is broadcast simultaneously to your “friends” and “followers” so that the conversation can travel across borders and oceans faster than any blog post.

While the usual tech pundits are all over twitter, there are also some very interesting people that realize the reach of today’s social tools. One such user, and definitely no stranger to Social Media, is John Edwards - yes that John Edwards. This is the guy that flew Robert Scoble in just to consult with him on how to integrate SM into his formal campaign launch. Let’s just hope that it really is him and not someone from his campaign…that might not resonate well if it was tested and it proved untrue.

Other twitter fans (or maybe fanatics) include Stowe Boyd, Steve Rubel, Scoble, Chris Pirillo, Chris Heuer, Thomas Hawk, Jason Calcanis, Jeff Pulver, Jeremiah Owyang, Brian Oberkirch, Chris Brogan, among many others.

twitter also offers a badge to integrate into a blog post, social networks, or your web site, which displays your most current messages.

Get online, find your friends, and figure out how it can work for you. So far I’ve used it for project coordination, travel scheduling, as well as for pure socializing and simply sharing alerts of where I’m at and what I’m doing.

As an interesting experiment, just look at all of the conversations in and around SXSW.

Next time you’re on, feel free to twitter me (that sounded a little dirty). Send a shout-out: @briansolis, I’m now on twitter!

Caution, it could be addictive.

Update: Seems that twitter is the top story on Techmeme right now. Here are some great conversations online:
twitter tips the tuna – Ross Mayfield
Much a twitter about nothing – shelbinator.com
twitter as a community tool – Chris Brogan
Can twitter save lives – Andy Carvin
twitter could become compulsive – Neville Hobson
twitter THIS – Karoli
Is SXSW going to be the death of twitter? – Chris Heuer
5 ways to use twitter for good – lifehack.org
twitter, a useful communications tool of SXSW – Jeremiah Owyang
Stowe Boyd on twitter
Is there a twitting point? – Rex Hammock
Why do I twitter? – J. LeRoy
A twitter top 10 – Marshall Kirkpatrick of Splashcast

Also, check out http://twitter.pbwiki.com/ for the 411 on twitter celebrities, politicians, hacks, etc. – Per Chris Messina

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Stowe+Boyd Steve+Rubel robert+Scoble Chris+Pirillo Chris+Heuer Thomas+Hawk Jason+Calcanis Jeff+Pulver Jeremiah+Owyang Brian+Oberkirch sxsw twitter social media media+2.0 media2.0 2.0 web2.0

Some bloggers “get it,” others are forcing us to do a better job explaining what we’re actually doing, while some (and the people who read their blogs) completely miss the point.

If anything, this conversation demonstrates why the blogosphere (and most importantly, people) will chew-up and spit-out traditional PR and corporate marketing types – without thinking twice. But that’s the beauty of this. It forces evolution and improvement – so, either get on board or get out!

It also brings to light a much needed discussion of the need for PR and corporate marketing to evolve.

Truth is that “social” is what’s truly sparking the controversy here. PR had the ability to hide behind so many tools in the past, and now finally, social media is forcing them to step out into the light. PR must now engage with people and in order to do so, must act like “people” not just a faceless broadcasting machine.

It’s not just PR though, social media must be embraced by companies in order to have validity.

In Stowe’s latest post, he nails it with pinpoint accuracy, “Let’s get down to the real basics. We are people. We are already engaged in conversation among ourselves. If corporations want to jump in, fine, go ahead. The water’s fine. But you have to drop the old line model in its entirety, or you will have zero success.”

Chris Heuer adds, “Regardless, this is finally the beginning of the manifestation of the cluetrain principles in our society, with companies entering the conversation in a real and meaningful way. ”

All in all, the world just needs PR to pay more attention to whom their sending information and why it should matter, to them and the people, that read their writing (or watch their videos).

Once they have that knowledge, it will, by all means, change how they reach out – whether it’s in email, by phone, comments, or through blogs. As someone pointed out, the best way to engage socially is by phone. But until they can do so with acceptance and legitimacy, PR has no business engaging directly with individuals.

PR must step from behind its black cloak of anonymity and step into the conversation. But in order to do so, they can’t at all, come across as a traditional PR person – just people talking with people.

The only problem is that most offenders in PR probably won’t even read these blog posts. Hence why we’re trying to bring them into the conversation. Well, only the good ones, the rest can wait for the Ice Age.

Here’s a summary of the conversation…

Supporting

The idea that there is no audience any more—that we’re all equal parts producer and consumer of content—makes for a nice sound bite. It’s also complete bullshit. One percent create content. Ten percent interact with it. That leaves 89 percent who simply read it. They are not engaged in the conversation. They are passively absorbing content. – Shel Holtz

Social media press releases are far, FAR from perfect. But, as long as they’re used as a bridge to further conversations with clients about a blogging strategy that is honest and not filled with malarky … then you know what? I’m willing to stomach it. – Dr Tony Hung

My opinion on the matter is this. I think that anyone who takes the time to invent something, lobby for it and contribute to the community is doing the right thing. That’s the definition of social. – Chris Saad

Stowe makes some bullshit assumptions about the PR industry and the changes many of us are already working to incite. – Mike Manuel

Fact: Press releases continue to be an efficient way to widely distribute information, so there’s no need to cut off your nose to spite your face. – Mark Evans

The new media release, as we refer to it, has the potential to make PR and media more honest because the source of each word, sentence can be tracked.
Posted by: Tom Foremski

Which brings us neatly to Robert Scoble, who misses it more than most. At least Stowe Boyd’s original post was well argued, even if I don’t think he fully understands what it’s all about. – Stuart Bruce

In the end if a marketing or PR professional writes good copy, or tells a good story particularly when it is selling a good product it tends to cut through all the clutter no matter how the message is delivered. – Rick Calvert

I’m a supporter of SMR, but if we want to debate SMR constructively let’s try to have some data to base our arguments. – Daniel Riveong

I’m sick and tired of ‘leading blah blah blah’ and ’solutions’ and phony ‘pleased and delighted’ quotes. But that’s not the issue the social media news release is addressing. – David Parmet

The IDEA is to strip out all of the bullshit and hype from traditional mechanical, and useless press releases and rebuild it as a focused compilation of relevant facts, links, media and a subscription feed to help readers write, tell, and share a story their way (without having to sort through a sea of crap to find out what’s real, what’s canned, and what’s important.) – Me

The social media release is the presentation layer, and that the concept we are supporting technically is the hRelease. The reason behind supporting Microformats are many, but the simplest is that it is intended to primarily be distributed through RSS on BLOGS! – Chris Heuer

I think Solis would say that quality PR can be done without compromising the integrity of the social network experience and maybe that’s true but as with all things commercial we’ll see more obnoxious and manipulative stuff than quality promotion. And hey, that’s OK because this … is …. America and we like our commercialism crash, superficial, and obnoxious, right? – Joe Duck

Some PR people are actually good at what they do. Others are not. And what they are good at is helping refine a message. And, thus, I can see social media and the “future of the press release” being a valid concept.
J. LeRoy

I don’t think we can kill the Release just yet, it still serves its purpose. But smart companies should be trying to complement it. – Jeremy Toeman

For the record, I think “social” news releases posted on a company’s website are hugely better than traditional releases posted on a company’s website. At least a social release allows people to have input. At least you know it’s a PR pitch and not a fake blog post.
Posted by: Dominic Jones

As readers here know, I don’t have any problem with press releases, old or new format, as long as the PR people do the real job of crafting well written and newsworthy announcements without BS. The press release and other materials created for announcements are just the documentation of the story. They aren’t the story. – Susan Getgood

So, where I am right now with the idea of a social media-based press solution: let’s use better writing, a more open approach to replying to feedback, blogs and a richer markup (hRelease) to make our press information more freely available, more indexable, remixable, and just more useful. Instead of being an end in itself (or merely a set of message points we hope others reprint verbatim) hReleases should jumpstart more conversation. — Brian Oberkirch

In my opinion, the social media news release is an inconvenient distraction from the real task at hand, which is getting businesses to understand what social media is in the first place, how it changes the rules, and how it challenges received wisdom and ancient corporate communication tools like, er, the press release. The social media press release is a distraction, but it’s a meaningful distraction… – Giovanni Rodriguez

–

Observing

I don’t have a PR background, and was trying to figure out how it helps communication. Frankly, I probably don’t know enough in this arena, so I’m anxiously waiting for this to get sorted out.
Posted by: Jeremiah Owyang

There’s something about the “social” in “social media” and “social networking” and “social” everything that keeps raising my hackles, no matter how much I believe in the best elements (and intentions) of those much hyped phenomena. – Scott Karp

I find this “social media release” thing rather odd. I’m sure it’s not the case but it sort of gives you the feeling that some in the traditional business world are getting together and deciding, “Well, it’s finally about time we started understanding this Internet thing.”
Posted by: Eric Berlin

Come on, guys, do it right. Don’t just talk the talk: walk the walk. Otherwise, your clients will never get there. – Stowe Boyd

Brian, if everyone agreed with your description of what a social media release was supposed to be and do, then I don’t think there would be any problem — although I think even a social media release should be just part of what a company does to get is message out, along with blogs, etc. It’s baby steps. – Mathew Ingram

–

Not Sold – yet

The problem with the SMR (which sounds more like AK-47 than it should) is that it still pushes information in “blips of transparency” that you expect people to somehow care more about than their friends, who are pushing similar, yet ongoing and consistent “blips of transparency” that, over time, have resulted in genuine relationships forming. You can’t expect drive-by honesty to replace decades of abuse and indirection. Posted by: Chris Messina

In fact, even the term “social media” makes me want to cry. WTF is social media? People are social and we aren’t just idly waiting here to have really impersonal, crappy PR messages stuffed down our throats. Posted by: tara hunt

Public relations is “getting social media all wrong.” None of this is rocket science. And the PR folk have no excuse. All the relevant information is easy enough to find, if one takes the time to actually look. The fact that lots of them aren’t bothering to take the time, well, that’s another issue altogether. – Hugh MacLeod

Would it be possible to get all the little glue-sniffing communist SMPR advocate bastards together so corporate American can beat them with baseball bats? Please? CONTINUED ON ANOTHER BLOG — Lastly, the only reason this social crap has any support from PR is because a small group have glommed onto it as the new new thing and the cornerstone of their lightweight expertise. They look sillier every day. Both comments posted by: Amanda Chapel – (This is a bit weird coming from a blog that is all about hiding identity. Where’s the courage in anonymity?)

I really don’t get why society needs a stupid press release. Oh, OK, I guess we need to pre-write stories for bloggers and journalists since they can’t write their own opinions or reports down, right? Sigh. – Robert Scoble

I don’t really need to read anything else to understand that Stowe is right on point – and you understand that my post was less about the idea of a social media press release than the role of PR more generally, I assume. And I don’t personally think this is an Edelman issue. It’s simply the expected tension between the authenticity of social media and the lack of it in much of business. Which, as far as I’m concerned, is as immutable as the law of gravity. – Rob Hyndman

It’s all good. But you gotta stop caring about press releases and start caring about people. – Jenean Sessum

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Stowe+boyd Jeremy+toeman livedigitally release smpr hrelease brian+solis social media social+media Robert+scoble jeremiah+owyang pressrelease press+release public+relations pr2.0 newmedia tom+foremski socialmediaclub chris+heuer

After spending a week writing “Social Media Killed the Press Release Star,” which painstakingly explains in great detail the need to improve the content and overall relevance of PR and press releases as well as putting a microscope on why the hell a social media (or let’s just call it “an overhauled”) release WILL exist, people still don’t get it.

Good friend, Stowe Boyd wrote an interesting post that I’m afraid is drawing the wrong kind of attention to an important movement…the need to improve PR and fix everything that’s wrong with the press release.

Ally, Robert Scoble unfortunately jumped on the bandwagon as well tearing down the SMPR without proper background on the subject and what we’re trying to do with it. But, he did accurately capture the essence of why I’m working hard to change the game with his comment, “I really don’t get why society needs a stupid press release.”

Fellow comrade, Jeremy Toeman at LiveDigitally asked if it’s time to kill the press release. His thoughtful observation was a little more on target, claiming “Reporters for more traditional outlets don’t necessarily deserve to have their worlds come crashing down just because us “hooligan bloggers” don’t have the patience to read through a full-page of carefully crafted spin information.”

Stowe asked, “Why not just use blogs? Why do we need these so-called “social” press releases?”

Scoble demanded, “Just give us a damn demo of your product and tell us about it.”

Indeed blogs and videos are a part of communicating with people to spark many-to-many conversations and it takes an entirely new level of PR to legitimately engage without being portrayed as fake or plastic. It takes experience, honesty, and an understanding of what they’re talking about and why it benefits readers – most PR professionals are not even close to approaching the market at this level, though they should be.

In addition to providing newsmakers with a better source for writing their stories, blogs are a natural way to also start conversations (eliminating the robotic process of companies talking “at” markets).

Video demos are also exactly where PR needs to go. It’s now easier than ever to capture and share video with bloggers, reporters, and people. Consider it the “new” video news release if you will.

But blogs and video demos aren’t ready to displace press releases – at least not yet – and at the end of the day, they are additional ways to open dialogue. It’s all about the steps that get us out of using painfully out-of-date tools that have no place in the world of socialized news and the sharing of information.

Hence, the need for a tool that provides information in a way that works across a spectrum of applications, while getting us one step closer to creating a closer relationship between producers and consumers, companies and customers, and most importantly between THE people that comprise all of the above segments.

The truth is that the wires are getting it all wrong as the IR Web Report points out. And, it’s polluting the intention behind this movement and stripping away credibility away from those of us who are diligently working on fixing something that has been broken for a long, long time.

Someone on the panel misused the term “audience” which in all honesty has no place in the world of social media. According to Stowe, “Please, please, please don’t talk about audiences when you are theoretically promoting social media. As Jay Rosen has suggested, we are the people formerly known as the audience.”

He’s absolutely right. In the discussion of press releases with PR people who are starting to learn about social media, “audiences” still speak volumes when discussing the distribution and dissemination of news to various readers – unfortunately, many people aren’t there yet and they’re not connecting audiences with people. But “People” is also too generic when looking through the scope of a sniper rifle. It begets further division in order for PR to connect at a deeper and more meaningful level…

So, let’s get this straight.

Audiences = people

People = various groups of individuals with common wants and needs

PR can only participate in the conversations when it can truly understand those unique and important wants and needs.

Stowe did accurately point out that most PR is complacent and old school, “The ‘wink, wink, nudge, nudge’ complicity of leading PR bloggers around serious flaws in the conventional notions of PR is lamentable. For example, seeing the bloggers acknowledge on one hand that CEOs don’t actually provide those quotes that are stuck into press releases while on the other hand promoting transparency and openness in corporate communications was more than painful.”

But, let’s be clear! There isn’t any lamenting or mercy coming from this PR blogger. I’ve been pretty frank with the need to improve things at every level in PR, not just writing, and have gone to great lengths to help those who feel there’s an opportunity to improve.

Brian Oberkirch replied to Stowe’s post with, “I do think something like hRelease would be good, as it would permit people to clearly round up the ‘official’ company responses to things and make them a part of larger discussions. The ails that plague press releases have nothing to do with slapping a Technorati link on them.”

Look, it all starts with the need to tell a better story in a way that means something to someone. One release no longer serves everyone. With wire services and savvy web marketers placing them in search engines as well as news desks, it’s now more important than ever, to improve the foundation. Garbage generates garbage. Benefits and relevance specific to individual needs produces interest and ignites dialogue.

Journalists and bloggers aren’t the only reader of releases these days; they’re now actively consumed by customers as well. 51% of IT professionals reported that they learned about new technology by reading releases on Yahoo over tech publications. That’s a HUGE shift and should spark an urgent need to transform the release into something more substantive for the needs of specific customers.

Remember, it’s the substance, significance, and honesty that press releases lack. The rest is technology.

The idea behind the SMR aka hrelease aka Social Media Release aka New Media Release is a bit off in Stowe’s post and among other critical PR bloggers and practitioners. It’s not about capitalizing on trends in order to take an archaic, dying press release formula and present it to newsmakers in a fancy new package labeled as “social media” just because it has trackbacks, Technorati tags, RSS feeds, links, etc.

The IDEA is to strip out all of the bullshit and hype from traditional mechanical, and useless press releases and rebuild it as a focused compilation of relevant facts, links, media and a subscription feed to help readers write, tell, and share a story their way (without having to sort through a sea of crap to find out what’s real, what’s canned, and what’s important.) This is what a good release should be anyway, regardless of trends and titles. Basically it’s the press release redux. It takes out what’s wrong with press releases and modernizes them into a usable format for journalists, bloggers, and individuals.

If you don’t get it, then move on, really. Keep using press releases with fake quotes, jargon, hyperbole, and paragraphs full of ridiculous details that have no relevance to anyone. Pay $1,000 for a wire service that will only end up in search engines, not in the news. Forget that the web in-of-itself represents a new kind of “wire.” Ignore the shift that has already taken place. Bitch about it, correct us, harp on the irrelevant details, cast all the stones you want, but don’t do so without getting your facts straight.

At the end of the day, what matters is that some of us will continue take the arrows in the back in order to change what’s wrong with PR while demonstrating success. All this, so that others can get better at what they do, and in the process learn how to engage individuals in a way that transcends the one-AT-many (audiences) approach to many-to-many conversations (with people).

Update: Chris Heuer adds perspective and insight to the conversation.

Update: The other side of the story starts to come into play over at Touchstone. Are You Paying Attention?: Sunday morning snippets

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Stowe+boyd Jeremy+toeman livedigitally release smpr hrelease brian+solis social media social+media Robert+scoble jeremiah+owyang pressrelease press+release public+relations pr2.0 newmedia tom+foremski socialmediaclub chris+heuer

This isn’t an attempt at sensationalism, this is a clear message for all businesses, in every market – Engage or die! If you don’t, you’re competition will. Those who engage with customers and markets will cultivate loyalty in ways never before possible. Traditional marketers will lose, unless they embrace new media.

The key however, is finding ways to measure everything in ways that mean something at every level of corporate communications.

In any given day, I will sell, evangelize, educate, and defend social media to clients and business prospects. But then again, I seem to have to do the same for PR – as to this day, most executives have no concept of how PR works, nor the understanding of how it helps them.

But either way, when it comes down to it, businesses want metrics.

Last week, I had the opportunity to meet with a new player in an already crowded consumer electronics marketplace. It was a fascinating experience, because while it’s considered by many experts to be a commodity play, this company happens to be one of the oldest, most trusted brands on the planet.

While we discussed PR opportunities, both traditional and 2.0, their greatest enthusiasm unveiled during potential ideas surrounding social media and the ability to engage their customers in conversations. More importantly, it was a glimmer of hope as it revealed that they too, might have held reservations about the potential for success.

Last week, Factiva invited a group of Social Media Practitioners, Bloggers, Corporate Program Managers, and PR consultants, to discuss metrics in Palo Alto and what was important to them as influencers, their executive team, and clients. Jeremiah Owyang hosted the roundtable and Daniella Barbosa from Factiva made it all happen.

This post isn’t intended to serve as a summary of the discussion. Jeremy Pepper, Jeremiah, Christopher Kenton, and Daniela Barbosa, among others, have already captured it brilliantly.

Jermiah Owyang

My platform for the event was many-fold, as I wasn’t there simply as a PR person. I’m also a blogger, and more importantly an advisor to many tech companies in a variety of industries including enterprise, consumer electronics, and Web 2.0. With each hat I wear, my answers vary.

Stowe Boyd, Greg Narain, Daniella Barbosa

My goal here is to emphasize key observations and critical points that must surface in order help social media permeate into day-to-day marcom campaigns – including skeptics and evangelists alike.

Jeremy Pepper

Here are some of the questions we discussed and attempted to answer?
- Do you believe Consumer Generated Media is important and should be measured?
- Who is creating Social Media? What are they creating? And is “the who” more important then “the what?”
- If you are producing Social Media, how will you measure ROI?
- Do you think that Social Media needs a structured, mutually agreed upon measurement techniques and metrics (e.g. MSM’s ad value equivalence and article impressions) to make monitoring a more serious practice?
- So what should be measured, and how do you want it delivered?

I think we all agreed that CGM (the term) is dead. Let’s just call it social media, and absolutely, it’s critical that we track it. We call can agree that customers, peers, competitors, basically, everyone can and is generating social media. But it’s not just about who, it’s about “what” they’re saying.

In this case the “I” in ROI becomes much smaller than previously factored. And, while we’re at it, ROI for social media, should be measured in terms of “ROP,” return on participation. Why? Because ROI is iffy at best when measuring the true value advertising, branding, event marketing and especially PR.

The mistake that most executives make is that they try to tie everything to sales. Advertisers link everything to circulation and page views. PR people tie column inches and online articles to ad value. How does any of this apply to social media?

Those of us in the space are actively finding ways to measure ROP – and many of the processes are painfully manual. Services such as Technorati, Buzz Metrics, Blog Pulse, Buzz Logic and Alexa help, but wouldn’t it be incredible if there was a Techmeme or Tailrank for tracking conversations based on key words? Now that’s a winner right there! It’s the only service that could measure “conversations” and we all (or we should all) know, that markets are conversations now more than ever.

ROP is specific to the measurement of “participation” which is, at the end of the day, what separates social media from traditional marketing. ROI is a metric when marketing at customers. ROP measures conversations with customers and customers conversations with others.

After all, social media isn’t only for companies that “get it.” In fact, my greatest challenge is trying to help those companies that need it, understand and embrace it to not only succeed, but also survive.

Some of the ideas that were introduced for measurement include (through my creative mashing-up of many of the ideas tossed out there):
- Relevance
- Influence and reach
- Community, engagement, participation, comments, etc.
- Demographic
- Sentiment/tonality of the post
- Ranking, via Alexa, Feedburner, downloads, etc.
- Blogroll
- Meme, tracking conversations
- Readers and loyalty

Based on the voting, the following were the results:

Photo Credit: Jeremiah Owyang (see more from the set)

The Results, Photo Credit: Jeremy Pepper

#1 Participation – Engagement
#2 Influential ideal, memes, path
#3 Relevance
#4 Sentiment / Tone

According to Jeremiah, “Measurement depends on what the business goals are. Some folks tied measurement back to hard ROI: (Does Social Media shorten the sales cycle/reduce cost, and does it increase revenues).”

However, most of the discussion focused only on measuring bloggers. To me, bloggers only represent one, albeit highly influential, piece of the social media landscape. However if we’re talking about social media as it relates to CGM, then services such as YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, flickr, Yahoo Groups, LinkedIn, among thousands of others are also relevant for metrics.

One important observation regarding bloggers is that it’s not just about the most influential bloggers out there, it’s about the “magic middle.” These are the people who recognize valuable content and in turn share it amongst each other. With the right tools, conversations can then be tracked throughout the traditional marketing bell curve, while inside the tornado, riding the cluetrain, crossing the chasms along the way.

Perhaps the most critical element of any of this is to combine existing metrics with new measurement standards in order to make this whole process tangible and easier to embrace. ROI + ROP.

Engage or die!

Andy Lark

Here’s a partial list of attendees courtesy of Factiva’s Glenn Fannick
- Stowe Boyd, BlueWhale Labs /
- Andrew Lark, Founder, group lark
- Ed Terpening, VP Social Media, Wells Fargo, Wells Fargo Blog Index
- Christopher Kenton, MotiveLab,
- Jeanette Gibson, New Media Communications, Cisco
- Brian Solis, FutureWorks PR / PR2.0,
- Ian Kennedy, Product Manager, Yahoo, flashpoint
- Jeremy Pepper, Social Media, Weber Shandwick / POP! PR Jots
- Jory Des Jardins, Co-Founder, BlogHer, LLC;
- Mike Manuel, Strategist, Voce Communications, Media Guerrilla
- Andrew Vignolo, Director, Market Trends & Analytics, Levi Strauss & Co.
- Jeff Beckman, Director, Worldwide and U.S. Communications, Levi Strauss & Co.
- Tony Obregon, Director of Social Media, Cohn & Wolfe

For more pictures from the event, please visit the stream on flickr. You can also visit Jeremiah’s set on flickr.

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Roi rop social media social+media factiva pr bloggers metrics jermiah+owyang daniella+barbosa jeremy+pepper cgm web2.0 web+2.0 technorati buzzlogic techmeme tailrank alexa feedburner stowe+boyd greg+narain brian+solis pr2.0 pr+2.0 blogher Andrew+lark grouplark group+lark lark marketing advertising marcom communications public+relations

Welcome to the Bubble

Sung to Guns and Roses “Welcome to the Jungle”

Welcome to the bubble
We’ve got fun and games
We got everything you want,
and we know the names
We are the people that can find whoever you may need
If you got the ruby honey,
We got your VCs
In the bubble, Welcome to the bubble
watch it bring you to your na na na na na na na na knees, knees

We wanna watch you succeed

—

Aside from economic factors that point to the current tech economy as merely a spike instead of a bubble, we choose to focus on the emergence of a new social economy, which is driving tech and creating enthusiasm in the valley once again.

Welcome to bub.blicio.us!

The bubble is back baby with 2.0 times the grandeur and fun – with a little dash of humility thrown in for good measure.

After attending an overwhelming series of parties, events, and conferences, a group of dedicated professionals and talented writers decided to band together to cover the rapidly inflating bubble of events, startups, and ultimately (and hopefully) the Silicon Valley economy.

bub.blicio.us is here to help capture the excitement behind everything two point oh – especially the party and event scenes in Silicon Valley and San Francisco. No panels, no keynotes, no tradeshows, just a lens into the social scene that’s energizing and shaping Bubble 2.0 and the new Valley economy behind it.

Who are the people behind the scenes…?

Stowe Boyd, BlueWhale Labs and /Message

Greg Narain BlueWhale Labs and SocialRoots

Joanne Wan, entrepreneur, first hire at STIRR

Julie Blaustein, Photo Bucket

Moi

We’ll also have the pleasure of running contributions from special guests along the way.

Keep bub.blicio.us on your party list and send info on your events. We might just send someone out there to cover the soiree.

Contact at dontpop@gmail.com and keep an eye out for “bubblicious” on upcoming.org

Tags: bub.blicio.us bubblicious web2.0 web+2.0 web20 bubble bubble2.0 bubble+2.0 2.0 silicon+valley siliconvalley sf san+francisco joanne+wan stowe+boyd greg+narain brian+solis megan+mccarthy stirr photobucket photo+bucket socialroots pr2point0 events upcoming Julie+blaustein tech /message futureworkspr futureworks

Organized by Joel Sacks, CNET and Marketing Strategist at BuzzShout, and Myles Weissleder, SF NewTech Meetup celebrated yet another new milestone of over 600 members.

The November SF NewTech seemed to come up pretty quickly this time. And, it rained again (October’s event greeted us with rain as well) – let’s hope this isn’t a pattern!

As usual Myles kicked things off to what had to be the largest turnout yet. The event attracted the usual faces, with some new additions as well, including CEOs, founders, VCs, programmers, bloggers, and a reporter (Rafe Needleman of course.) Quick tangent here, I think it’s very cool that Rafe takes the time to stay tapped into the community.

The only thing that I would like to see improved for the next meetup is the removal of all PowerPoint decks. Demos are cool and. I’m there to see new tech. Slides are boring and very 1.0.

First up…iStumbler.com

Alf Watt, iStumbler.com

Myles described it in advance, “Alf is one of my oldest friends in San Francisco. He has been working on his revolutionary wireless discovery tool for Mac for a long time and he’s excited to share it with us. It’s called iStumbler and it’s pretty damn cool.

iStumbler is a wireless discovery tool for Mac OS X, providing plugins for finding AirPort networks, Bluetooth devices and Bonjour services with your Mac.

—-

Bart Myers, GUBA, the grand daddy of online video

Sort of a cross between Bittorrent and YouTube, GUBA is an online entertainment destination where users can browse, download, share and buy user-generated content, as well as hundreds of movies and TV shows. Their site advertises movies for $0.99 and TV shows for $0.49.

Using, GUBA, GUB’ers (just made that up) can download content to their PC, iPod, PSP, and other portable devices. Users can watch videos in Flash, QuickTime, Windows Media formats, and can stream videos in their home network using Windows Media Center and Apple’s Front Row technology.

Founded in 1998, GUBA is privately held company and headquartered in San Francisco.
When asked, Why GUBA, Myers replied, “We’re cooler. It’s not just a place to get a movie, it’s a place to find entrainment and watch it, when you want to, how you want to.”

—

Veronica Belmont, Molly Wood, CNET TV

CNET TV is striving to become a popular destination wit its unique design and personalization features, which includes a virtual remote control, a “draggable” interface so users can move things around, full-screen playback, playlists, and customizable channels and backgrounds. With more than 30 original videos produced each week and a library of thousands of videos,

CNET TV gives people a single destination to easily find the latest videos on their favorite technology products and topics. Video features include the Buzz Report, Car Tech, Insider Secrets, Prize Fight and First Look from the Lab that help consumers figure out what gadgets to buy and how to get the most out them.

It also makes a selection of the site’s popular video content available for distribution on television.

—-

Mital Poddar, Swapthing.com

Based in Cupertino, SwapThing enables the swapping (trade and barter) of any combination of items and services between consumers and small businesses, as well as direct purchases. SwapThing is swap-based, as opposed to auction-based, allowing completely private, one-on-one negotiations. SwapThing offers free registration and listing for items, with a low transaction fee of $1.00 for each exchange of goods.

The company also introduced SwapServices, which allows small businesses, service providers, and independent professionals to advertise their business, swap services, and save money.Mital also mentioned that the company’s Swapcircles equals its secret sauce.

a SwapCircle is a community of individuals who identify with a particular activity, locality or other commonality. SwapCircles provide a new way to swap goods and services amongst trusted swappers with similar hobbies or interests. SwapCircles are customizable with a group’s logo and mission, as well as displaying the items listed by the members under one umbrella, and also provide a private forum for members to talk, swap, and share ideas and stories.Currently, there are over 50,000 swappers using SwapThing, and over 3,000,000 items and services listed.
When asked about the biggest swap she knew about, Poddar replied, “A Maserati for two jet skis!”

—-

Joost shreve, Everytrail.com

A last minute addition to the line-up, Everytrail.com was created by a small group of passionate travel and outdoor enthusiasts, out of dissatisfaction with current solutions to share trips with friends and likeminded people.

EveryTrail is an online platform that enables hikers and adventurers to visualize their travel and outdoor activities and even share them with likeminded people all over the world. Users can easily upload GPS data recorded while out on the trail and even add photos and notes, to create a visual record of their outdoor activity.

I see this for having huge opportunities not just for hikes, but also boating (throughout the delta for example. What a way to chart a course, without having to buy an expensive chartplotter. Of course, mountain bikers, skiers, snowboarders, kayakers, etc. can benefit from this technology as well.

The service just needs the ability to provide a printed map service, which according to Joost, are on the way.

—

Vic Podcaster, Joanne Wan, and Ben Wan

James Yu of BuzzShout

Scott Beale of Laughing Squid and Vic Podcaster of HotfromSiliconValley

In the shot, Stowe Boyd, Rafe Needleman, Niall Kennedy

For additional pictures, jump over to flickr.

This month’s event was sponsored byFutureWorks PR for emerging companies (Andrew Lane Wines)

Jacobs & Ferraro, LLP Tech-focused legal firm (beer and snacks.)

The Forbin Group Infrastructure design solutions for business (pizza) Joel Sacks and CNET for the space!

Tags: everytrail sf newtech meetup scott+beale scottbeale niallkennedy niall+kennedy vic+podcaster vicpodcaster hotfromsiliconvalley cnet rafeneedleman rafe+needleman stoweboyd stowe+boyd ben+wan benwan joannewan joanne+wan swapthing istumbler futureworks cnettv cnet+tv guba buzzshout joel+sacks james+yu veronica+belmont

Since Chris Heuer, host and event organizer of Web 2point2, has requested that participants write blog posts to facilitate topics for the board to consider for the Main Talks or the “How To” sessions, I thought I’d keep the ideas flowing.

I’d like to see a discussion of new opportunities for Tags outside of Technorati.

Greg Narain of BlueWhale Labs and Social Roots and I were speaking about the idea of Tag Beacons recently during the Webguild Web 2.0 event and how they could benefit conference organizers during pre- and post- show blogosphere coverage.

For example, in this case, we came up with “webguildweb20,” but the idea would be that Webguild would provide that info proactively on their site and in media kits issued to writers.

At the recent SocialMediaClub meeting about disclosure, we asked everyone to use the tag beacon “blogger+ethics.”

Of course the idea of Tag Beacons can be used in almost anything.

For example, I recently read a post over at Stowe Boyd’s /Message that discussed the concept of using tags in the support industry – based on his discussions with Chris Carfi and Alex Barnett.

On another note, there is (or, is there) also a need for a collective, searchable tag cloud, online social app, or widget that helps day-to-day bloggers standardize on tag formats as well as capturing popular tags in a given segment – wihtout having to manually figure it out?

Contributing to Topics to Web 2point2

If you want to lead a Main Talk (in the big room) write a post and tag it with “web22talk“. If you want to lead a “How To” session or serve as a Technology Coach, write a post and tag it with “web22howto“.

About Web 2point2

Web 2point2 is an ‘unconference’ that is driven by participants and based on conversations, not powerpoints. It is run as a project of BrainJams, Inc. a California Non Profit organization that is also organizing Social Media Club http://www.socialmediaclub.org/.

The people who will be in attendance are the influentials of the Blogosphere and Web 2.0 movement who are in the trenches doing the real work, starting up new companies and sharing their understanding of what they learn through Social Media such as blogs, vlogs and podcasts. In short, the crowd will be largely made up of peers and contemporaries in the resurgence of the Web.

Event Details

Thursday, November 9th and Friday, November 10th, 2006

Registration starts at 9:00am, sessions start at 10am and each day ends around 6:00pm

For only $32.95, registration provides you with one of the 200 spots available and includes refreshments, two lunches, a t-shirt, entrance to the Web 2point2 Release Party on November 9th, and dozens of incredibly powerful conversations with other passionate people

Web 2point2 Release Party

The event is listed on Upcoming (upcoming:event=106074) – if you are interested in seeing some of the other folks who may be attending.

If you register for the unconference, you get into the Web 2point2 Release Party FREE, through the VIP line. If you can’t make it, but you’re interested in joining the party, you can purchase a ticket in advance for $15 (plus service charge).

Join the real movers and shakers who mash it up everyday for some fun and live music on Thursday November 9, 2006 from 730pm till midnight.

Add to del.icio.us

Digg This!

Tags: web +2.0 web2.0 unconference web2.2 web22talk brainjams socialmediaclub socialnetwork siliconvalley socialmedia tags technorati tagcloud tagbeacon tag+beacon stoweboyd stowe+boyd gregnarain greg+narain bluewhale tagging chriscarfi chris+carfi alexbarnett alex+barnett

Since Chris Heuer, host and event organizer of 2point2, has requested that participants write blog posts to facilitate topics for the board to consider as topics for the Main Talks or the “How To” sessions, I thought I’d keep the ideas flowing.

I’d like to see a discussion of new opportunities for Tags outside of Technorati. Greg Narain of BlueWhale Labs and Social Roots and I were speaking about the idea of Tag Beacons recently during the Webguild Web 2.0 event earlier in the week and how they could benefit conference organizers during pre- and post- show blogosphere coverage. For example, in this case, we came up with “webguildweb20,” but the idea would be that Webguild would provide that info proactively on their site and in media kits issued to writers.

Of course the idea of Tag Beacons can be used in almost anything. For example, I recently read a post over at Stowe Boyd’s /Message that discussed the concept of using tags in the support industry – based on his discussions with Chris Carfi and Alex Barnett.

On another note, there is (or, is there) also a need for a collective, searchable tag cloud, online social app, or widget that helps day-to-day bloggers standardize on tag formats as well as capturing popular tags in a given segment – wihtout having to manually figure it out?

Contributing to Topics to Web 2point2

If you want to lead a Main Talk (in the big room) write a post and tag it with “web22talk“. If you want to lead a “How To” session or serve as a Technology Coach, write a post and tag it with “web22howto“.

About Web 2point2

Web 2point2 is an ‘unconference’ that is driven by participants and based on conversations, not powerpoints. It is run as a project of BrainJams, Inc. a California Non Profit organization that is also organizing Social Media Club http://www.socialmediaclub.org/.

The people who will be in attendance are the influentials of the Blogosphere and Web 2.0 movement who are in the trenches doing the real work, starting up new companies and sharing their understanding of what they learn through Social Media such as blogs, vlogs and podcasts. In short, the crowd will be largely made up of peers and contemporaries in the resurgence of the Web.

Event Details

Thursday, November 9th and Friday, November 10th, 2006

Registration starts at 9:00am, sessions start at 10am and each day ends around 6:00pm

For only $32.95, registration provides you with one of the 200 spots available and includes refreshments, two lunches, a t-shirt, entrance to the Web 2point2 Release Party on November 9th, and dozens of incredibly powerful conversations with other passionate people

Web 2point2 Release Party

The event is listed on Upcoming (upcoming:event=106074) – if you are interested in seeing some of the other folks who may be attending.

If you register for the unconference, you get into the Web 2point2 Release Party FREE, through the VIP line. If you can’t make it, but you’re interested in joining the party, you can purchase a ticket in advance for $15 (plus service charge).

Join the real movers and shakers who mash it up everyday for some fun and live music on Thursday November 9, 2006 from 730pm till midnight.

Add to del.icio.us

Digg This!

Tags: web, +2.0, web2.0, unconference, brainjams, socialmediaclub, socialnetwork, siliconvalley, socialmedia, tags, technorati, tagcloud, tagbeacon, tag+beacon, stoweboyd, stowe+boyd, gregnarain, greg+narain, bluewhale, tagging, chriscarfi chris+carfi, alexbarnett, alex+barnett,

STIRR, “Our Mixers are designed to bring founding teams together along with a blend of members from the tech community (stealth-mode folk, startup-savvy engineers, journalists, service providers and investors). Stirr Mixers encourage people to stand up, interact, socialize and swap thoughts/ideas. Each mixer provides an opportunity for early stage entrepreneurs to present ideas to their peer group, press and investors.”

While at Office 2.0 conference, I coordinated a series of caravans from San Francisco to Palo Alto, bringing Office 2.0 attendees, speakers and press along for the ride.

Upon arrival Fanny and Alexander in Palo Alto, it was evident STIRR 1.7 was already well underway.

It was a bit overwhelming, because I didn’t arrive until 7 or so, and it seemed as if there were three STIRR parties running simultaneously – the back patio, the main room, and outside by the front entry way.

Sanford took the stage to announce STIRR’s Original ’60 Second Spot’

The STIRR team

Rafe Needleman gets the crowd ready

Up first…

LicketyShip, Robert Pazornik, CEO

Licketyship delivers electronics products to your home or office in about 4 hours “as fast as weather and traffic permit.”

When you search for a product at LicketyShip, they check the inventories of stores near you in real-time. Their patent-pending software matches the product closest to you with the nearest available courier from their instant-delivery network.

Items are packed on demand, so they’re ready to go when their couriers pick them up and then deliver direct from the store closest to you.

Because it’s more efficient to deliver products across the city than across the country, they can deliver to you the same day you order for about the same price (and sometimes less) than overnight delivery from FedEx – usually about $19.99 for package up to 150 pounds.

PrefPass, Adam Marsh, CEO

PrefPass is all about one thing: personalizing web sites without having to register.
PrefPass lets you grant any site a Pass to access your anonymous Prefs with one click. So whether the site wants to personalize their content, their recommendations, or their ads, they can ask you and you can say yes or no. Simple, right?

Vyatta, Allan Leinwand, Founder

Vyatta is working to restore the open environment and culture of the Internet’s past by developing a line of enterprise-grade, open-source, network infrastructure products, including routers and firewalls. Vyatta was created to bring commercial-quality open-source networking products to market.

vFlyer, Oliver Muoto, VP of BizDev, Founder

vFlyer is a classified ad creation, management and submission platform that enables online sellers to quickly and easily create attractive classified ads or “virtual flyers” that can be posted on dozens of leading online marketplaces in a few simple clicks. Sellers today are faced with the problem of having to post to multiple marketplaces in order to sell their products and services.

Users can upload high resolution photographs, include maps, and select or create professional themes to publish their “virtual flyers.”

Google Gadgets

We were also treated to a surprise guest speaker. Adam Sah from Google discussed his team’s efforts behind Google Gadgets. Google Gadgets are mini-applications that work with the Google homepage, Google Desktop, or any page on the web. They can range from simple HTML to complex applications, and can be a calendar, a weather globe, a media player, or anything else you can dream up. Google’s “Universal” gadgets work with the Google homepage, Google Desktop, or your own webpage.

Back to the party…

Of course there are always too many people to try to meet and engage in meaningful conversations, but I did my best. Those I caught up with include:

Tara Anderson, ValleySchwag
Kevin Warnock, gOFFICE
Melanie Sit, Innovation Management Sciences
Michael McDerment, FreshBooks
Christian Perry, Zaptix and SF BETA Meetup
Brian Sullivan, Civic Evolution
Mittal Podder, SwapThing
Rafe Neeldleman, CNET
Baris Karadogan, ComVentures
Greg Narain, Social Roots and Blue Whale Labs
Megan McCarthy, Valleywag
Angie Chang, themintpages
Chris Heuer, Brainjams and SocialMediaClub
Ivaylo Lenkov, SiteKreator
Jason Hoffman, Joyent
Jeremiah Owyang, Web Strategist
Joel Sacks, BuzzShout
James Yu, BuzzShout
Ryan Olson, Red Herring
Ben Wan, Angel Investor
Christopher Peri, Vyew
Vic Podcaster, Hotfromsiliconvalley

Christian Perry and Tara Anderson

Ben Wan

James Yu of BuzzShout capturing footage

Aside from recapping the day’s events at Office 2.0, there was interesting business dialog transpiring everywhere.

SwapThing and Lickety Ship discussed a possible alliance for local swaps.

Chris Heuer discussed his upcoming events, “From Social Media to Corporate Media” on 10/23 in Palo Alto and “Web 2.2” on 11/9 in San Francisco.

Joel Sacks and James Yu shot footage for their new videocast over at BuzzShout.

Greg Narain introduced his new venture Blue Whale Labs along with Stowe Boyd and Ranvir Gujral. The Lab’s goal is to provide “Strategic consulting, design & development for innovative social applications.”

Tara Anderson of ValleySchwag was looking to procure new schwag for future mailing.

Kevin Warnock of gOFFICE recapped his presentation and was looking for potential partners and possible advisors.

Lenkov of SiteKreator highlighted his presentation that he was preparing for the Office 2.0 panel hosted by Michael Arrington of TechCrunch.

Christian Perry promoted Zaptix, but also recruited for the upcoming SF BETA Meetup.

Mike McDerment of FreshBooks discussed the advantages of SaaS and the company’s ability to provide stats for service providers and customers, including average billing, payment timelines, etc., by industry.

Melanie Sit unveiled plans for a “Web 2.0” holiday party.

Megan McCarthy introduced herself as the new party correspondent for Valleywag.

Jeremiah Owyang

Greg Narain

Baris Karadogan COMVentures

Christian Perry, Angie Chang and Sister

Mittal Podder and Sean Ness (STIRR co-founder)

Ryan Olson The Red Herring

Rafe Needleman was interviewed by our very own Alison McNeill

For more pictures, visit the flickr photo stream.

For more on the story, visit Valleywag

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The Office 2.0 reception kicked off last night at SF MOMA. It was actually a grand affair, at least by Web 2.0’s more humbled event precedents.

It truly drew an all-star crowd and the dialogue in there was pretty enlightening.

Ismael Ghalimi

Chris Heuer and Tara Anderson

Steve Gilmor

Aside from discussing business models, technology, the state of Web 2.0, and the future of Office 2.0, it was also room-filled with familiar faces and friendly conversation among thought-leaders catching-up in-between product development cycles, company launches and events.

Some of the more notable conversations included:

Ismael Ghalimi, Intalio, Office 2.0, and ITRedux
Jeffrey McManus, Approver.com
Christopher Peri, Vyew
Daniela Barbosa, Factiva
Marc Orchant, Foldera
Chris Heuer, SocialMediaClub and BrainJams
John Furrier, PodTech
Stowe Boyd Message
Ivaylo Lenkov, SiteKreator
Sunny Madra, Posticky
Tom Foremski, Silicon Valley Watcher
Mike McDerment, Freshbooks
Mike Masnick, TechDirt
Joel Sacks and James Yu of BuzzShout
Jeremy Pepper
Nicole Simon, Bloxpert and Crueltobekind blog
Chris Dury, Scanr
Dan Farber, CNET
Bruno Haid, System One
Khalid Shaikh, YouSendIt.com
Oliver Starr, Foldera
Sridhar Vembu, ZOHO
David Young, Joyent
Tara Anderson, ValleySchwag
Jeff Nolan, Teqlo, Inc.
Florian Brody, YouSendit.com

John Furrier and Jeff Nolan

Daniela Barbosa and Sunny Madra

Khalid Shaikh and Tom Foremski

Jeff Nolan actually announced at the reception that he had officially joined Teqlo. Read more about it here. The tagline for Teqlo is, “Assemble, Publish, Invite.
You can now make the internet work for you…”

Jeff Nolan

Zoho announced its Virtual Office, which was covered over at TechCrunch.

All in all, the event lasted well into the evening and we were basically the last to leave – not by choice

A handful of us stumbled over to the W for drinks and continued conversation.

In summary, there was obvious excitement around the Office 2.0 movement….even more interesting though, was that almost everyone offered a different definition of Office 2.0 in each of my discussions. I found them all relevant and accurate, but in a later post, I’ll offer my two-cents to the Office 2.0 messaging landscape

For more pictures from the event, jump over to the flickr stream.

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Tags: office2.0, ismaelghalimi, stoweboyd, zoho, jeffnolan, teqlo, yousendit, foldera, joyent, freshbooks, systemone, briansolis, siliconvalleywatcher, sitekreator, itredux, podtech

Office 2.0 is much more than a new way of enhancing in-office productivity and it’s definitely much more than highlighting current state of “everything 2.0” out there.

It is a significant milestone and testament to the state of the net, programming, an understanding of collaborative workflow, and an advanced way of seeking a way to simplify, streamline, enhance collaboration, and reduce the costs associated with day-to-day business.

Enter Ismael Ghalimi and ITRedux.

Ismael Ghalimi, CEO, Intalio

Per his own words, Ghalimi describes Office 2.0, “The idea is pretty simple: use a generic web browser and a set of online services to provide all the functionality needed by a computer user, removing the need for any application to be installed on the computer itself. I call it Office 2.0.” He continued, “A new programming model for web-based user interfaces called AJAX and a killer application for it — Gmail — are now bringing new life to this concept.”

Distributed computing, application streaming, and hosted applications are not new ideas, but with the popularity of Web 2.0 and its new way of encouraging social participation, Office 2.0 now has merit.

Ghalimi saw the opportunity, pulled all of the work-focused applications together, and dubbed it Office 2.0. Now, with resounding industry support, this week’s conference will bring the market to light.

The conference features all of the applications that define Office 2.0 and the industry leaders defining its landscape, including:

Michael Arrington, Editor, TechCrunch

Stowe Boyd, Managing Director, A Working Model

Tantek Celik, CTO, Technorati

Esther Dyson, Editor at Large, CNET

Dan Farber, Vice President, CNET

Bruno Haid, Head of Strategy, System One

Dion Hinchcliffe, CTO, Hinchcliffe & Company

Ivaylo Lenkov, CEO, SiteKreator

Charlene Li, Principal Analyst, Forrester Research

Om Malik, Founder, GigaOmniMedia

Matt Marshall, Columnist, The Mercury News

Michael McDerment, CEO, FreshBooks

Jeffrey McManus, CEO, Approver

Rafe Needleman, Editor-at-Large, CNET

Jeff Nolan, Evangelist, SAP

Christopher Peri, CTO, Simulat and Vyew

Chris Dury, Vice President of Marketing, scanR

Puneet Gupta, CEO, ConnectBeam

Sridhar Vembu, CEO, Zoho

“There has been a huge buzz surrounding Office 2.0 applications over the past year, but no event that specifically caters to the needs of this community,” said Ismael Ghalimi, founder and organizer of the Office 2.0 Conference and CEO of Intalio, the leading vendor of Open Source BPM software. “The Office 2.0 Conference is an excellent opportunity for the early majority of technology consumers and industry visionaries to discuss and explore the growing adoption of Office 2.0 applications in the workplace, and how they are revolutionizing the way we see and use technology in our working lives.”

Megan Saulsbury, Alison McNeill, and I will be video casting and blogging live from tonight’s reception. Well, since it would be our inaugural video cast, let’s just say we’re “hoping” to vlog the event

The event details:

Office 2.0 Cocktail – October 10, 2006, 6 PM
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Office 2.0 Conference – October 11-12, 2006
St. Regis Hotel, San Francisco

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Netscape

Tags: office2.0, ismaelghalimi, ismael+ghalimi, stoweboyd, stowe+boyd, web2.0, web+2.0, cnet, techcrunch, michaelarrington, michael+arrington, futureworks, briansolis, technorati, productivity, zoho, approver, systemone, sitekreator, vyew, freshbooks, scanr,

This was STIRR ’s sixth event and there was no doubt that it was the biggest to date. In fact they had to move from Blue Chalk in Palo Alto to The Whisper Lounge in SF in order to accomodate the growth. In discussions with Sean Ness and Joanne Wan, estimates were easily placed at about 225.

225…? Kudos STIRR team!

STIRR is an effective mix of “live” social and business networking among a highly qualified crowd of tech innovators, Web 2.0 execs, entrepreneurs, VCs, bloggers, and journalists.

The STIRR team:
Sanford Barr, Co-Founder STIRR, The STIRR Network
Sean Ness, Co-Founder STIRR, Institute for the Future
Dan Arkind, Co-Founder STIRR, Indico Group
Joanne Wan, STIRR Business Development, Strategic Decisions Group

So excuse the gushing intro here, but STIRR among other events, including the Silicon Valley and SF NewTech Meetups, are by far a blinding beacon for the new economy (albeit painfully humbled,) which is quickly gaining traction among those helping in the Valley’s resuscitation.

According to my friend “Skeptic” from Dead 2.0 , I’m the softball when covering these events. That’s cool. I know I’m an optimist when it comes to seeking a resurgence in, not only the technology sector, but also inflating the enthusiasm and spirit in Silicon Valley in general. I mean, really, how long do we have to continue to bow before the almighty dollar before we figure out how to transform it into some fortuitous multiple that pulls us out of our nuclear shelters for good!

Throughout the evening, I held countless discussions with attendees commenting how the latest series of TechCrunch parties were really getting too big to effectively “network.”

STIRR’s Joanne Wan commented, “STIRR helps everyone keep a pulse on the market and encourages them to talk and explore opportunities to work together.”

TechCrunch and Michael Arrington are in a different league however – not necessarily better, just different. To attend a TechCrunch party is more like going to a concert and getting to hang out back stage. While the TechCrunch parties didn’t necessarily start that way, they’ve simply evolved into monstrous, glamorous affairs, but they do not take away one bit of STIRR’s relevance. It’s all about the rising tide. Everyone floats up together, just in different ships.

STIRR, after all, is much more than a forum to cover Web 2.0 applications, this is a monthy spotlight on the rebirth of Silicon Valley.

Onward to the “original” 60-second spot…

In an interesting change of format, CNET ‘s Rafe Needleman was the guest interviewer at this Founder’s Mixer, and, he seemed right at home. As one of the principal journalists covering Web 2.0, it truly elevated the segment.

While the infamous staircase continued to serve as the stage for the presenters, the enthusiastic crowd somewhat stymied the trademark 60-second spot. It was excruciatingly difficult to focus, but to the credit of the presenters, they let it roll. Especially Rafe, who seemed to successfully take it all in stride.

The Presenters

So, let’s just excuse those in the audience that brought their virtual megaphones and have them check those at the door for 1.7.

The Presentations…

30boxes , Narendra Rocherolle, Principal

I covered 30 Boxes in my wrap-up of the August Silicon Valley NewTech Meetup.

30 days 30 boxes. An online calendar that lets you organize your life and connect with friends. 30 Boxes is brought to you by the minds of Eighty-Three Degrees , Inc.

Eighty-Three Degrees is a small software firm exploring online consumer applications with an eye for improving the user experience, eliminating complexity, and making use of increasingly open systems.

ClickFacts , Michael Caruso, CEO

ClickFacts, Inc. develops auditing software for Internet advertising. They deploy proprietary technology that helps publishers and advertisers detect and prevent click fraud and define a TrueROI. I loved the live demonstration of throwing money away. It was, for a split second, a reminder of Web 1.0 business practices.

DevjaVu , Jeff Lindsay, Founder

DevjaVu is a small startup in San Jose, California with the purpose of encouraging people to start projects that might change the world. Their goal is to lower the barrier to entry that comes with the idea of starting a new software project by making it as easy as possible to jump right in and focus on making it happen.

DevjaVu is a great fit for both open source projects and private internal projects. They hope to be the next place you go after registering the domain for your next software project, big or small.

Tariq Krim, CEO & Founder Netvibes

Netvibes.com is a startup company created in 2005. Based in Paris, the company “specializes” in Web 2.0 applications. Netvibes is a custom home page solution, which is free and basically gives the user the ability to create a personalized page with the content they like. The can put together data feeds and services with a very simple interface with access anytime and from any computer.

Users can browse, modify, and import RSS feeds with an integrated RSS/ATOM feedreader. They can also import, download and listen to podcasts without any additional software and can even check their gmail account and stick-on web notes.

SpyMedia , Bryan Quinn, President

I covered them in a recent post following their presentation at the Silicon Valley Newtech Meetup earlier in the month.

SpyMedia is a privately funded company that offers an online market for photos, where a buyer can set a price for a photo they want someone to shoot — and sellers can set prices for the photo they want to sell. It is ideal for amateur and even professional event and news photographers, as well as citizen and cellphone journalists.

ZapTix , Christian Perry, CEO

Small venues and event organizers use ZapTix to sell their tickets online. Founded in May 2005 by Christian Perry, ZapTix empowers performance groups, organizations, companies, conventions, and individuals to sell tickets and organize events online.

It was started with $12,000 and has already earned net proceeds of $35,000.

Back to the action…

I mentioned to Sean Ness that the quality of the crowd seemed to actually improve with each event, and he responded, “It’s all about ‘initiation only.’ This way we can control the caliber of attendees and keep them relevant and conducive to more effective and meaningful connections. It’s our way of maintaining a highly qualified audience. While other events peak and lose their core audience because of a proliferation of various attendees, STIRR focuses on the attendees that matter.”

Joanne Wan and Dan Arkind – Photo Credit: FngKestrel

While trying to make my way around the room, I had the opportunity to meet and speak with several stand-out entrepreneurs, execs, and media, all of whom I believe are “people to watch” or already making a difference:

My man Stowe Boyd, goes without saying… Message
Marc Canter
Jessica Hardwick, CEO of SwapThing
Priya Ganapati, journalist at Red Herring
Ryan Olson, journalist at Red Herring
Laurence Toney, VP Marketplace Operations, art.com
Greg Narain, CEO at Social Roots
Ranvir Gujral, CEO of InsightPath
Todd Parsons, EVP Products & Services, BuzzLogic, Inc.
Vic Podcaster ( blog ), Blogger and Founder, HotFromSiliconValley
Scott Beale ( blog ), primary tentacle, Laughing Squid
Lawrence Coburn ( blog ), founder, rateitall, inc.
Julie Davidson, Principal, 30 Boxes
Mital Poddar, VP Marketing, SwapThing
Neil Kumar, Software Engineer, Yelp
Kevin Burton, Founder/CEO, Tailrank
Peter Pham, Sr. Director, Business Development, Photobucket
Joe Hurd, VP, Business Development, VideoEgg, Inc.
Jennifer Wasson, Co-Founder, Track50
Ivaylo Lenkov, CEO, SiteKreator
Khalid Shaikh, Founder & CTO, YouSendIt
Jesse Friedman, CMO, ZapTix
Shannon Clark, Founder, President, MeshForum and JigZaw

Sanford Barr

The size of the crowd, combined with the meaningful conversations I was engaged in limited my ability to connect with everyone. Those I tried to connect with, but was held back due to uncontrollable obstacles included:
Matt Marshall, VentureBeat
Jeremy Pepper ( blog ), Group Manager, Weber Shandwick
Emily Chang, Co-Founder, Ideacodes
Ethan Prater, VP Products, Jigsaw
Brian Oberkirch, Social Media Consultant, Social Media Consulting
Thor Muller, Managing Director, Rubyred Labs
Brian Sullivan, Founder, CivicEvolution (Well we met at SF NewTech)
James Hong, cofounder, HOTorNOT
Rohit Khare, Director, CommerceNet
Beatrice Tarka, CEO, co-founder, Mobissimo
Alex Vikati, Co-Founder, CastTV
Lee Diamond, Associate, Silicon Valley Bank
Dan Arkind, Co-Founder STIRR, Indico Group
Daniela Barbosa, information consultant, factiva
Lanet Khoda, Partner, LANETWORKS

Ness and friends

Interesting highlights:

Ranvir Gujral, CEO of InsightPath mentioned that they’re almost ready to go into alpha. I’ll learn more this coming week.

Vic from HotfromSiliconValley announced that he will host the podcamp west unconference in November.

Jessica Hardwick, CEO of SwapThing is rolling out a new “localized” version of the online trading service.

Khalid Shaikh, Founder & CTO, YouSendIt mentioned that after being in business for three years, with 37’ish employees, the company officially launched on the 12th.

Todd Parsons, EVP Products & Services, BuzzLogic, Inc. mentioned that the “buzz” around the company is quickly ramping up. I’m looking forward to a demo.

Stowe Boyd gave me the breakdown on the Future of Web Apps conference.

At the end of the night, I was talking with Jennifer Wasson, Co-Founder, Track50 and Jesse Friedman, CMO, ZapTix about a potential alliance between the two companies. It actually was an ideal match, track your favorite bands with Track50 and then buy the tickets when they come into town through ZapTix.

Khalid Shaikh, Joe Hurd, Jennifer Wasson, Jesse Friedman

I am taken aback just thinking about 1.7. Honestly, STIRR instantly outgrew the Whisper Lounge, so I’m eager to see what the October event holds for us. Either way, I’m looking forward to it.

If you know of any potential deals or alliances forged, have any additional information, highlights, etc., please send them along or leave a comment. Also, if we didn’t get a chance to meet, please send me an email at pr2point0@gmail.com .

Links: For pictures from the event, click here to jump to the Flickr photo stream.

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Tags: STIRR , 30boxes , , Clickfacts , Michael Caruso , devjavu , Jeff Lindsay , netvibes , Tariq Krim , spymedia , Bryan Quinn , Zaptix , Christian Perry , Stowe Boyd , Jessica Hardwick , Swapthing , Priya Ganapati , Red Herring , Ryan Olson , Laurence Tony , Art.com , Greg Narain , Social Roots , Rafe Needleman , CNET , Ranvir Gujral , InsightPath , Todd Parsons , Buzzlogic , Vic Podcaster , hotfromsiliconvalley , Scott Beale , laughing squid , Lawrence coburn , rateitall , Julie davidson , neil kumar , yelp , kevin burton , tailrank , peter pham , Photobucket , jue hurd , videoegg , jennifer wasson , track50 , sitekreator , Khalid shaikh , yousendit , Shannon clark , meshforum , jigzaw , matt marshall , venturebeat , Jeremy pepper , Emily chang , ideacodes , ethan prater , brian oberkirch , marc canter , thor muller , rubyred labs , brian sullivan , civicevolution , james hong , hotornot , rohit khare , commercenet , Beatrice tarka , mobissimo , alex vikati , casttv , lee diamond , siliconvalleybank , dan arkind , inidco group , Michael arrington , techcrunch , Daniela barbosa , factiva , futureworks , Sanford barr , sean ness , brian solis , web2.0 , web 2.0 , briansolis , vc , venture captial , newtech , meetup

For all of you SiliconBeat readers, you may have found this message…

And for you others, you may have read at SiliconBeat, Valleywag, Stowe Boyd’s Message, among many others…VentureBeat recently launched, and then crashed amidst the linking frenzy that ensued…but has emerged as a bonafide resource for Venture-related deals and companies worth tracking in and around Silicon Valley.

The SiliconBeat post read, “Folks, we’ve made some changes here at SiliconBeat. Matt is going independent and will carry on the blogging at his new site, VentureBeat. You can see his first post here. Mike, who had stepped back anyway from blogging actively in recent months, will stay at the Mercury News, where he is managing the Web site. He will not continue blogging here, but Matt will try to get him to post occasionally over at VentureBeat. SiliconBeat will go dormant, and beginning Friday, will have a landing page directing people to their choice of (1) the new blog or (2) the Mercury News.”

Nick Douglas over at Valleywag posted, “The San Jose Mercury News is shuttering its tech blog, SiliconBeat, which (along with Good Morning Silicon Valley) displayed the insight and cleverness that the Merc News itself is missing.”

According to Matt Marshall, “We launched early yesterday morning, but an overwhelming spike in traffic, a subsequent server crash and no fallback combined to shut down the Web site for a whole day.We’ve learned some lessons.”

Well, as I mentioned to Matt, “How sweet it is to have your own RocketBoom…”

VentureBeat’s mission is to provide news and information about private companies and the venture capital that fuels them. People are at the heart of this project. VentureBeat will be a resource for entrepreneurs and other interested professionals facing some the biggest decisions of their careers.

Per Matt, “My Mercury News colleague Michael Bazeley and I launched SiliconBeat.com almost two years ago, in an effort to respond to the new reality of online media. Baze and I found ourselves spending several hours daily on a blog that was supposed to be outside of our day jobs at the Merc. Baze, showing more sanity, pulled back from SiliconBeat and has taken a job managing the Mercury News’ Web site. For me, SiliconBeat continued as a labor of love, a way to filter the goings-on of this fascinating place we call Silicon Valley. Yet I was doing too much. So I approached the Mercury News, and told them I wanted to go out on my own.”

Photo credit: VentureBeat

Good move Matt. Especially nowadays.

Marshall continued, “To my delight, the Mercury News has become my first customer. It will syndicate the content I produce here. It has the right to run it in the paper, and to put it on their Web site. For me, it is a great deal. The Merc is the valley’s paper of record. It is my first read in the morning, and what I do here at VentureBeat is linked with the Merc’s mission. Like most of the people at the Merc, I care about the community in a broader sense. That is why I’m covering things from a geographical standpoint, as opposed to an industry niche.

Some of its first stories include:
- Aruba, Sequoia-backed wireless LAN company, about to go public
- Apple and Google alliance — makes sense given culture, goals
- Valley VCs are on fire: Lots of deals, including bloated Force10, PlayPhone & Groxis…
- Zend raises $20 million to ride the Web 2.0 “PHP” boom

At SiliconBeat, we all grew to appreciate Matt’s sense of insight, humor and wit. So I’m looking forward to continue reading VentureBeat regularly. Have a great long weekend everybody!

Tags: matt marshall, siliconbeat, venturebeat, stowe boyd, valleywag, nick douglas, aruba, sequoia, apple, google, vc, venture capital, silicon valley, force10, playphone, groxis, zend, web2.0 web 2.0, san jose mercury news , sjmercury , rocketboom