On the Radio

Oh, I was so surprised and shocked, and I wondered too
if by chance you heard it for yourself
I never told a soul just how I've been feeling about you
but they said it really loud
they said it on the air
on the radio whoa oh oh
on the radio whoa oh oh
on the radio whoa oh oh
on the radio whoa oh oh now, now
--donna summers, on the radio


Tonight I join Social Media Diva Toby Bloomberg on her new BlogTalk Radio Show. Toby, Wayne Hurlburt and I will be talking about social media ethics (yeah, i know!) trying to define what it mens, how and if bloggers differ from journalists in complying to rules/mores/norms, how much any of this matters and to whom, and more. A half hour isn't very long, but let's get the party started. Show notes are here. Wish me luck.

---

Bad Blogger Pitch Week

As more and more PR firms large and small jump into the space they call social media, which only vaguely resembles the social media space we who participate online play around in, the number of bad PR pitches is escalating. There’s dough to be made. There are plenty of junior people at PR firms with MySpace pages. It’s a match made in billable-hours heaven.

I’m getting several of these pitches a day, where I used to only get a couple a week. They are getting stupider, even though the tools that slice and dice bloggers into media outlets should be getting smarter. The problem is that we were never targets; we were never outlets; we never said we were media; we still aren’t. Old PR models still don’t work here.

Word to your Account Exec.

This became oh so apparent yesterday when Toby Bloomberg let some of us in on a pitch she got from a 'teen-and-t'ween PR person who is at least somehow affiliated with Fleishman-Hillard (still pondering if this is an FH site or some off brand) trying to lure Toby into caring about the site with talk of Marlo Thomas and Mary Tyler Moore.

Allison of The Next Big Thing sent Toby the pitch that shows she’s never read Toby and doesn’t know what Diva Marketing is about. She doesn’t know the folks Toby cc’s on her reply back either—although she pledges to add us to her “RSS”. I have a Tween and I worked in BigPR long enough to know the extent to which PR cares about tween$ is reflected in that little s at the end.

Now, Toby’s gotten tired of these pitches, but is among the tireless who still take the time to respond to them in an attempt to educate the would-be media relations people or perhaps shut them up until they take the time to READ.

Because most of these pitches are veiled attempts to get you to HIRE THESE PEOPLE as YOUR NEXT "SOCIAL MEDIA PR ONLINE MARKETING WHAT HAVE YOU" CONSULTANT or to USE THEIR SERVICES OR THE SERVICES OF THEIR CLIENTS, not, as they would like you to believe, to add something useful to your day, allow me to provide my tips for choosing a social media consultant in the form of a little quiz you can use in your own business.

Make no mistake: I think that you should work with people who actually participate in social spaces – many of whom started out as bloggers and who are still bloggers – rather than XYZ PRPros or BigPR Central. So lets see how the next people who come looking for your money or attention do on my Social Media Partner Quiz:

• Do you blog? Please provide a link (with a link to your archives).
• What does the word “Blog” stands for?
• Who has been celebrated as the mother of blogging?
• Who is the father of podcasting? Who says they are the father of podcasting? Who's right? (Are you willing to say so at BloggerCon?)
• Which President invented the Internet?
  
• Do you participate in conversations with key influencers in the Technorati Top 500? Name them.
• Have you ever argued online with Robert Scoble?
• Where doesn’t Robert work?
• Is your blog among the Technorati Top 5,000?
• Is an aggregator used 1) to waste time at work, 2) to make your car go, 3) to track blogs you want to read, 4) all of the above.
• How far back do your blog archives go?
• Does a MySpace login use numbers or letters?
• Have you ever twittered before a date? After? During?
• What’s CSS?
• Have you been published on topics germane to this industry in mainstream media?
• Send me links to your blog, podcasts, videos, myspace page, orkut page, youtube page, facebook page, flickr photos and Kaneva page. When I said Kaneva, did you say God bless you?
• Do you spend at least half of your on-the-phone time with other bloggers, Internet lovers, or people in your industry?
• Name some of your best friends online.
• Name some of your best enemies online. (note: immediate disqualification if none listed -- you haven’t been here long enough.)
• Did your read Cluetrain? Was it about 1) freedom 2) the rail and transportation industry or 3) best practices?

For a brief written evaluation of test results and recommendations, paypal $29.95 to ewriter@bellsouth.net.

---

Telling your story

Have you seen Blogger Stories yet? One of my favorite Atlantans and blogologists, Toby Bloomberg, started the site to tell the stories of how people have been touched by blogs, podcasts, vlogs and other online interactions.

Toby and her featured guests are up to 90 chapters of stories contributed by bloggers across the globe. Reading Blogger Stories is a good way to find new-to-you bloggers to add to your aggrevator. For example, My Back Pages. I've been enjoying/empathizing with Kristen's sleep probs.

Writing the Personal, Writing Personally, And Who Are You Online?

Toby's got a cool discussion going on about the ins and outs of sharing the personal on a professionally-geared blog, and vice versa. We're continuing it tomorrow at SoCon.

Questions -- Can you write 'personally' without sharing details from your personal life? Can a professional blog be personal and professional too and still be 'weighty' enough to matter?

What are the risks of integraing or separating your "selve(s)" online. And what about other social spaces--profiles on myspace, orkut, friendster, facebook; professional connections on linkedin, 'personalities' on second life; photos on flickr; videos, podcasts and everything else Media 2.0? Are we becoming more dissociated or more integrated?

How much of you are you willing to share, how personal are you willing to get, and at what cost?

And what about gender -- are women willing to go where guys fear to tread in the personal department? Is it true that male bloggers tend to separate their professional writing from their more personal posts (men who come to mind: mike arrington's "techcrunch" vs "crunchnotes"; stowe boyd's /message vs ambivalence; and scoble's -- oh wait, I guess scoble blogs like a girl).

:-0

eh? eh?

Kat Herding Media goes social!

My atlanta blog cohort -- my blogdivamia -- Toby Bloomberg and I will be leading an uncon discussion on Women and Social Media: Finding Your Niche at SoCon this Saturday. Last minute addition to the schedule, we said okay, and we'll do our best to evoke some interesting conversation--bring your wildest questions, sometime in the afternoon, to Kennesaw State. I'll be coming from Jenna's last basketball game, so let's be thankful they don't do overtime in the Upwards league. ;-)

see you there.