Crowdsourcing

I do have to admit I had to google the term Crowdsourcing and then pay a visit to wikipedia.com in order to get a clue about the topic.As far as I have now understood, the term refers to harnessing the human energy of wide audiences to business efforts of various companies. George Raine calls crowdsourcing as a The Wisdom of the Crowds, a retail democracy with a focus on the group on a large scale. In retail democracy people, the audience, pay thereby willingly and without a reward their contribution to develop content to an article, the designs for clothing company or a data to a wesite. The most well-known example might be wikipedia, the source of my knowledge here.

Douglas Rushkoff discusses the both sides of the issue. On one hand,companies might consider open-source as a tread to their intellectula property rights and copy rights. Open source sofwares such as Linux are considereble choice for the classic Windows or macIntosh users and thus representing unwanted comptetiton for the same clientle and, moreover for free. On the other hand, from a positive point of view, companies might consider the audience as a new affinity group population to be exploited as a resource.

The whole meaning seems to lay on the engaging audience to the interaction and serving they as they want by getting the feedback directly. However, if the audience influences the content, in some cases even designs and develops the content, how can the company claim it to belong to the company? How democratic is that people who have have actually helped to produce the product and technically own the intellectual property of a design, idea or a text content, have to pay for the product in order to get it. Moreover, where are the royalties to the people for the every sold product?

I guess, at this point, I'm standing on the no mans land with Rushkoff. At least, for now.

Search engine advertising and search engine optimizing

Obviously in the world of blogging, it is essential to be accessible for the readers. Therefore readers have to be aware of the blog and what is more important they have to be able to find the blog among imaginable amount of other information floating around in the internet.

According to the Search Engine Guide search engines are the key to do drive the traffic to the site. Basically everyone uses one no matter if they are searching information, trying to locate certain web pages or just surfing around. The search engines also allow to build link networks, analyze the traffic on the site, build the brand and to do on-line reputation management. The most popular one at the moment seems to be Google with accurate and relevant finding among over billiard URLs without pop-up windows. Google provides searchers a huge amount of other service besides the basic searching tool. Therefore they possess a large and moreover, committed customer base that bloggers aim to utilize.

According to Google, the results of searches on their searching engines are ranked according to democratic principles as an opposite of a lot of other search engines. Apparently the most of the search engines sell rankings and one’s position on the findings list depends on one’s budget.

What the search engines represent to business seems quite similar to ads on the popular print media. The basic idea is quite the same; to lead customers to the desired location, raise interest, build a brand and improve awareness. The measurable data can be produced and moreover, it can be analyzed. However, with extremely large number of users combined to as large base of sites using the same search engine might make it difficult, or in worst case scenario impossible, to stand out in the crowd for desired users.

Apparently advertising via search engines is beneficial and at its best, cost-effective with numerous audiences. Yet the audience can be extremely difficult to target due to the large numbers of users. Therefore the targeting and messages might be tricky to define. Seems that search engines should be considered as a part of the strategy combined to other activities in order to ensure reaching the goals.

The Art and Science of Social Media and Community Relations

As a rather new kid on the block, the social media and media relations lacks the kind of expertise that is gained throughout the years on the field. According to Brian Solis in his book The Art and Science of Social Media and Community Relations despise the science behind social media, all the theories and concepts developed, there are shortage of hands-on-specialists and how-to-do-know-how. He puts the new found emphasis on the old saying “it’s easier said than done”.

Probably companies would do if they only knew how. Social media provided endless array of media forms, forums, individuals, communities and networks. Without a legitimate history of applying social media relations, companies face instantly the overwhelming task to focus to find their targets and channels. After that the building of networks, initiating conversations and getting to know people may begin. If companies expect fast, measurable results like in buying market space, they are about to surprise.

To be honest to me, based on the Solis’ book, building up the networks via social media sounds extremely time-consuming. Additionally, as any other business communication operation, it requires well-planned strategy and patience to carry out long-term projects. Actually it seem resembling rather much the real life when one, say, moves to new city or a neighborhood.

Maybe the fast paced and innovative nature of new social media confuses people to assume that operating on the field and applying concepts into practice is fast, in-and-out-kind of, impulsive range of actions as well. However, seems that the basic nature of communication never changes.

The art of successful social media relations consists of default requirements of a good core idea, a good plan, commitment and vision for the future. Just as any business operation.

Microblogging and PR

The concept of microblogging as a part of PR work seems rather confusing. The fast paced evolution of communication and turbulent media environment forces PR professional seek out for innovative and customized ways to reach its audience. Moreover the influencers are not to be reached by random untargeted pitching.

The audience cannot be considered as a large bulk like to the word public in the term Public Relations suggests. Brian Solis, in his blog PR 2.0, states that the modern interpretation of PR translates to Personalized Relationships. The randomly targeted spamming via new communication innovations serves no one and more specified, individual and personalized communication is required in the message filled environment to be noticed by the wanted audiences.

Therefore, the tools in use have to be accordingly. Twitter provides an on-line channel for PR people for reaching desired audiences in an effective and productive way. In middle of information flood the bloggers face the users of Twitter have to fit their message in 140 characters. Twitter helps them pick good stories as the PR people concentrating to pitch the relevant parts of it.

The confusing part is that the even though Twitter may provide a tool to personalized communication the Twitter itself seems to offer rather limited communication space and therefore very little room for personify the messages or the actually build personal relations or networks within the 140 characters.

However, I tried.

Networking by Blogging

The great thing about blogging is that it gives a voice to anyone with an opinion and access to internet. According to A Guide to Blogger Relations the people behind blogs as well as reading them are the reason why blogs serve a as a forum for PR purposes. Furthermore, no matter if the blogger is a professional journalist, an enthusiastic or a writer, blogs are social media with a core mission to reach other people and by other people.

Blogging provides seemingly free media coverage due that it supplys information about products, phenomena, or services from objective sources on the contrary to bought marketing space. Thus is seems more reliable, trustworthy and interesting. By linking back to each other, bloggers form an extensive network that covers almost all segments and categories and topics. This network of objective authority provides endless information and inspiration to readers among the customers.

The opportunities that this networking stands for is well notices among PR professionals. The easiest access is to use listings that rank bloggers according to the traffic on their sites or the quantity linking back to them. However, as in A Guide to Blogger Relations is pointed out, the most popular one is not always the best one. As mentioned earlier, the bloggers are people and to gain loyalty or new customers, the development of relationships are required.

Therefore, operating in on-line networks of blogging seems rather similar to real-life networking only in different format. As in real-life one is always able to take a step further and actually pay bloggers to write about one’s products yet it declines the credibility of both; the blogger and the product. And then, just like in real life, the fine line between marketing and PR is crossed.

Building a relationship requires compatible partners with mutual interest and a lot of work and time. To build up a network requires the same ingredients yet multiplied exponentially. And yes, that is applied to on-line networking as well.

Building Brand by Blogging

Currently, with the ever growing importance of the electronic media and internet, at the first glance blogging seems like a golden ticket to establish a personal brand. A blog provides free, unlimited column meters to fill for professionals in almost any business branch. With no one stealing the spotlight and without a competition of a space and visibility in same site, one can truly concentrate on one self.
A blog provides an extensive forum for representing one’s potential and qualities to publics with a possibility to interaction with them simultaneously. According to Amy Gahran a content of a blog lacks the traditional boundaries of media such as loyalty to one that pays the salary, objectivity and limited space. Her basic idea seems to be that a blog can be used as a free, on-line marketing tool of a personal professional know-how, skills, ideas and as a whole, a brand.
Yet seems that the ground principles of marketing apply to blogging as well. No matter that the blog itself is free to run, a successful blog however requires a strategy, careful planning of content and unavoidably, a lot of work.
Visio and a design are needed. As in the 10 Step Beginners Guide to Blogging Your Personal Brand is stated, the most important tasks when starting a blog, is to find a niche, create a recognizable visuals that can be indentified to the blogger and define the personality of the blogger. Furthermore, according to Personal Branding Blog a personal brand statement is needed similar to a vision of a company. These seem to be the core stones of a blog’s image and the context of the messages it sends.
Though a blog is self provides media coverage, the gain of it is pointless if the no one knows it exists or reads it. A blog requires presence in media in order to be found by readers. Therefore, the blog should be found via search engines and links in other www-sites. As it is pointed out in PR 2.0, the easier the blog is find in the internet, the more presence it has and the harder is gets to control the image of a blog and its presence in various contexts. Accordingly, similar to companies, the blogs might face negative feedback. The negative, or in extremes, hostile comments on the comment box or chat forums may tarnish the brand and the blogger.
Evidently a blog is potential and very useful forum for personal marketing and brand development media. However, it faces the age old challenges of building brands and requires devotion and work.
Apparently, there is no easy access even with internet access.