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Who blogged the American Revolution?

June 25, 2009 | Written by Darius Razgaitis

The Iranian uprising has been covered extensively these last couple of weeks, including coverage of the chatter on Twitter. The communication on Twitter struck me as interestigly similar to the description of communications from another revolution - the American one.

Inspired possibly by HBO’s “John Adams” series, I’ve been reading Bernard Bailyn’s pulitzer-winning “Ideological Origins of the American Revolution.”

During the American Revolution, there was a medium of communication that allowed for “complete freedom of expression,” yet could also “be more detailed than is ever possible in a newspaper,” and “can be produced much more quickly than a book, and in principle, at any rate, can reach a bigger public.”

This medium did not have to follow any standard rules. “It can be in prose or in verse, it can consist largely of maps or statistics or quotations, it can take the form of a story, a fable, a letter, an essay, a dialogue, or a piece of ‘reportage.’”

All that was required of it was that it be “topical, polemical, and short.”

Sounds a lot like blogging or micro-blogging, but these were pamphlets. Pamphlets, in many ways drove public sentiment in colonial America against the British, and as John Adams famously wrote:

“What do we mean by the revolution? The war? That was no part of the Revolution; it was only an effect and consequence of it. The Revolution was in the minds of the people, and this was effected from 1760-1775.”

He goes on to say that the pamphlets of the time period are what should be inspected to learn what formed public opinion.

And much like Twitter and blogging, they were cheap, fast, and difficult to suppress.

Unlike today’s social media, however, pamphlets did not allow for certain social aspects like the instantaneous and public nature of comments, re-tweeting and Digg’ing. But they were similar in that they allowed for conversation in a way that resembles the modern day YouTube response video. It takes longer to put together than a “thumbs up” rating, but they’re not feature length productions that take months to make.

The key lesson here is that even though we’re in the digital age, the basic tenets of PR and communications remain the same. Oftentimes the most effective communicators are the ones who find the fastest, broadest, and most credible ways to put their messages across.

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Can you survive without Facebook?

June 10, 2009 | Written by Darius Razgaitis

While reviewing applications to the Ruder Finn Executive Training program recently, my colleague mentioned that we’re in a place in PR where perhaps we shouldn’t consider applicants without Twitter accounts. They are, afterall, applying to work at a pretigious, global NY PR firm heavily focused on social media.

The idea sparked a good old-fashioned watercooler debate yesterday on whether or not certain digital trends are here to stay. One colleague claimed to know enough about Twitter without being on it. That might indeed be enough. As we saw from a Harvard Business School study last week, 90% of tweets come from just 10% of users, and average lifetime number of tweets per user on Twitter is 1. The vast majority of Twitter users, it would seem, are “just looking.”

Maybe “just looking” at social media is enough to cut it in today’s PR world.

We can all survive without the latest tech, sure (he said writing a digital trends blog post on his BlabkBerry on the subway). In many cases, we’re probably better without it - Hulu even advertises that it rots your brain.

But, much like my grandmother who is opposed to getting an answering machine because it’s too newfangled, my colleague might do just fine, thank you very much, but will be missing out on a whole world of possibilities. She’ll be missing out on the virtual watercooler conversations taking place at Ruder Finn on Twitter, missing access to journalists who prefer 140-character pitches, and being behind on what’s going on with Shaq.

Another colleague was considering leaving Facebook, failing to see the point of it all. Her argument was that Facebook replaced prevailing technology that came before it, and something else will be along soon to replace it as well.

Without a doubt, there will be something to replace Facebook, and the question today is, “will I someday look back and wonder how I survived without Facebook?”

Is Facebook like the cellphone - a tool that has become so pervasive in our culture that some people don’t communicate any other way? Is Facebook like email - a tool that many people can’t imagine their work lives without?

Does your business live and breathe social media, or can you do without?

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RFI Studios launches new website redesign for PARC (Palo Alto Research Center)

May 29, 2009 | Written by Stephen Downs

We here at RFI Studios are very excited and proud to launch the new website for PARC (Palo Alto Research Center). PARC, which was founded in the early 70’s as part of Xerox Research, was tasked with inventing the “office of the future” and in 2002 PARC was incorporated as an independent research business. As celebrated leaders in industry breaking innovations such as laser printing, the graphical user interface (GUI), ubiquitous computing and the like, PARC required a new web strategy to display its history, expertise and capabilities in helping businesses realize the potential of technology.

It’s an amazing experience to be part of a process that starts out rooted in web development but quickly becomes something bigger.  Conducting a comprehensive discovery period (usability testing, user research, web analytics, brand assessment) RFI learned that external site users were not aware that PARC is open for business, let alone, all of the services and expertise that the institution contains.  This became a core focus of the strategy.

As a result, we developed a unique and streamlined architecture, devised to display the entire content offering at one glance, effectively displaying the PARC universe for all to see. From here, contextual cues were utilized to engage users direct questions: How do I work with PARC? What are PARC’s areas of focus? What has PARC contributed to the Industry? The overarching goal was to ensure easy access of content and promote PARCs prominence.

The visual design is intended to display a cartesian layout, mimicking the strict rules of science and at times allowing the content and visuals to break the mold – a perfect metaphor for PARC, its scientists and the result of their innovative research.

Today concludes an intense, several month technology development process. Throughout each stage, from inception to completion, the website redesign process has involved an intense QA and usability review. The visual design, taxonomy, platform, code and related assets have all been tested time and time again. The end result is what we believe to be a fantastic website which will enable future growth and flexibility for PARC.

View the new site here: www.PARC.com

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How to look at gender online (SFW)

May 28, 2009 | Written by Darius Razgaitis

Americans for UNFPA (disclosure: client) works in the U.S. to support the United Nations Population Fund, the world’s largest multilateral source of funding for global women’s health. And tomorrow they are hosting a chat on Twitter to share ideas about global women’s health and rights.

(You can participate by adding #forwomen to the ideas you tweet, and you can watch the conversation at: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23forwomen.)

I’m excited to see where it leads and what the participation will be, as I have a hunch that there are a lot of people out there, particularly on Twitter, who will have a lot to say about the topic.

What does this have to do with digital business trends?

The connection is that there are new ways for companies to look at demographics online. The temptation with a topic like this would be to look first at the demographic and then at how to engage them.

But how we look at demographics is be changing. Online activities blend across demographics, and as Ruder Finn’s Director of Social Media recently noted in an op-ed for PR Week, intent is the new demographic.

This means is that age, race, gender, etc, are not the only ways to determine how to reach a targeted audience online. First you have to look at what people are doing online, and only then can you get a better idea of who they are.

As PR Week’s Nicole Zerillo pointed out in her recent Marketers continue to fall into gender-stereotype traps article:

criticism demonstrates how companies – including well-funded, marketing-savvy ones – still struggle in determining the right way to market to women.

The article highlights how “woman-targeted campaigns” don’t necessarily look at the underlying issues that create a need for the campaign in the first place.

The Wall Street Journal asked last week in “The Forgotten Market Online: Older Women“:

Are online marketers so youth-conscious — because it “feels right” — that they’re ignoring lucrative markets just when they’re most needed? The Internet is neither new nor young. The fastest-growing segment of Facebook users is women over 55, according to the Tracking Facebook blog. And the underlying assumption that young people are still the Web’s most fertile market doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.

This underscores the need to look first at what people are using the Internet for, rather than who they are.

A recent study from BlogHer, a leading online network for women, looks at where women go online to find trusted information. They found that women are twice as likely to go to blogs as opposed to social networking as trusted sources of information.

This survey combines the ideas of intent and demographic, by looking at intent within a demographic.

How do you think this research can help formulate your next PR campaign?

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Noodle revue - awesome edition

May 21, 2009 | Written by Darius Razgaitis

A lot of great articles for you in this week’s digital business trends roundup:
noodlerevue


An exciting week for Ruder Finn and PR Week blogs. Ruder Finn co-CEO has been feature this week on PR Week’s ‘Insider‘ blog. Check it out here:
When pandemics go viral
and
Rebuild trust through strong leadership

Have already been posted, and another one is due up Friday. I encourage you all to comment.

Also, Ged Carrol, Ruder Finn UK’s new director of digital strategy has been hosting a blog on PR Week’s UK site:

Kittens, babies, sunsets or flowers? Life online

Some recent posts:
That ain’t Digg bait, it’s just good PR

The name of the game

Interview with Matt McGinnis of Dell Global Comms, Enterprise Products

Enjoy!


New York Magazine: In Defense of Distraction:
Twitter, Adderall, lifehacking, mindful jogging, power browsing, Obama’s BlackBerry, and the benefits of overstimulation.


WSJ (All Things D): Why Online Video Ads Still Don’t Work, by Peter Kafka

Extremely hilarious video on integrated eye-popping web placements to leverage buzz for up-leveled cascading paradigms.


WSJ: From Moore’s Law to Barrett’s Rules, By Michael Malone

Intel’s chairman on antitrust silliness and the secrets of high-tech success. He say

- The business is bigger than the business.
- Don’t mess with Moore’s Law.
- Invest during hard times.
- Consensus is good — except when it isn’t .
- Follow the business, not Wall Street.
- When something works, don’t re-invent it, reproduce it.
- It pays to have good competitors.


BusinessWeek: CEOs Who Twitter

50 CEOs who find tweeting a personal and professional delight.

Here’s the list boiled down: http://is.gd/BkPv


WSJ blog, Gary Hamel’s Management 2.0: Empowering Natural Leaders in ‘Facebook Generation’ Ways
Asks some interesting questions:
What’s your advice to natural leaders who feel stymied by the formal hierarchy? How can they use the new social technologies of the Web to extend their influence and accelerate the pace of change?


And finally, here’s a site that tracks journalists on Twitter:
http://muckrack.com/

It has a great interface, and helped me find @alansmurray’s great feed.

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May we never run out of engineers

May 13, 2009 | Written by Darius Razgaitis

There won’t be many digital business trends in the future if the world’s engineering and technology professionals pull an Atlas Shrugged on us. That’s IF we don’t run out of them first!

IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional society, turns 125 today, while announcing the first Global Engineering the Future Day.

Designed to raise public awareness of the opportunities in the technology industry, Engineering the Future Day recognizes the contributions and impact that IEEE and its members have made for the benefit of humanity.

The IEEE saw the need to increase awareness of technological advancement and its impact due to global decrease of students entering the fields of engineering, computing and technology. For example, the number of engineering specialties in Chinese universities has decreased by more than half from 1997 to 2006, according to the Chinese Ministry of Education.

In the U.S., although university enrollments are at an all-time high, the number of students in science, technology, engineering and math programs has remained stagnant for the past 25 years.

This lack of growth can lead to America facing a shortage of trained professionals in fields that fuel tomorrow’s innovations in healthcare, alternative energy and communications. And that would spell doom for digital business trends blogs!

Take a visit to IEEE 125, and see what technologies are emerging, and what’s being done to encourage tomorrow’s engineers.

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The Noodle Revue

May 8, 2009 | Written by Darius Razgaitis

Enjoy this week’s Noodle Revue roundup!

noodlerevue


24/7 WallStreet: The Sun Sets On BusinessWeek, Forbes, And Fortune

The May 11 issue of Fortune Magazine is a perfect demonstration of what the three largest business magazines have done for decades. Its cover story, “How Bernie Did It’ is the culmination of a four-month investigation into the details of Bernie Madoff’s life and business operations written and reported by three of Fortune’s best editorial staff members, one of whom is a Pulitzer Prize winner. This issue of Fortune is also an example of why the magazine and its competitors Forbes and BusinessWeek, will soon no longer be able to publish these kinds of stories. The May 11 issue has 92 printed pages and covers. There are only 21 pages of paid advertising compared with more than a hundred pages in a spring issue 20 years ago.


Speaking of Forbes:
Forbes: A Cloud In Every Garage

Written by Russ Daniels,  CTO of Cloud Services Strategy at HP.

In light of all of the historical comparisons about the current economic situation and its proposed fixes, I’d like to offer my own perspective based on technology trends that have the potential to re-ignite growth for decades. My analogy comes from what at first sounds like an unlikely source: the automobile industry.


And speaking of HP:
PC Magazine: RIM, HP Announce BlackBerry Print-on-the-Go Tech


Swine flu goes viral?
http://www.miniclip.com/games/sneeze/en/


Social Media Today: Ethics and Facebook

Can a lawyer hire a third person to send a “friend request” to a witness? According to an opinion from the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Professional Guidance Committee the answer is no.


YouTube: Google founder Larry Page commencement speech at U of Michigan. The phrase “class of 2009″ send shivers down my spine:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFb2rvmrahc

Larry Page’s grandfather was an assembly worker at the Chevy plant in Flint Michigan, and his dad thought that computers were a fad. A touching story about his dad.


MediaPost: Murdoch Jabs At Facebook’s Fast-Growing Audience

Rupert MurdochRupert Murdoch took a swipe at MySpace rival Facebook Thursday after News Corp. reported weaker-than-expected sales at its Fox Interactive Media unit, which consists mainly of MySpace. FIM online ad revenue during News Corp.’s fiscal third quarter ending Mar. 31 dropped 16% while the unit’s revenue overall fell 11% to $187 million.


McKinsey Quarterly: Memo to the CEO: Why we need an annual report for technology

The IT organization and the business units should be much more in tune. Here’s one way to make that happen.


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The Noodle Revue - Derby Edition

May 1, 2009 | Written by Darius Razgaitis

Fire up those mint julep machines!  Kentucky Derby this weekend. Some horse-related items below for this week’s Noodle Revue on top of the usual (and whatever I do, I will NOT mention swine flu in this post).

Many thanks to Ruder Finn head of HR and avid horse fan Cathleen Graham (@cashcat1969) for some of these links.

noodlerevue


Knowledge@Wharton: Social Media for Social Causes: Alex Brown’s Passion for the Welfare of Horses

Alex Brown’s love of horses started long before he launched the blog, Alex Brown Racing, but it was Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro that pushed the blog into prominence — and eventually established it as a site dedicated to the welfare of horses. Along the way, Brown learned many things about creating and nurturing an online community by using tools like wikis, Facebook and Twitter, and following certain principles, such as: Be authentic, be transparent, be consistent and build trust. Brown, one of whose goals is to rescue horses destined for the slaughter house, talked with Knowledge@Wharton about his strategies for bringing attention — and money — to the cause.


LinkedIn: Horse lovers of the Business world

A group for all us business folk who outside the world of hi-tech and commerce like to unwind and get back to nature with horses. No matter your discipline (Dressage, X-Country, Trail riding, Polo, etc.), or even if you don’t have a horse but like Equine events, then come join in and get together.


AllTop: http://louisville.alltop.com/


Twitter: #kyderby


Facebook: Mint Julep fan page


Chicago Tribune: Teen tweets way to Derby

Other than the fact that he’s already won $4 million in purses and may be on the verge of becoming one of the most famous faces in the sports of horse racing, Joe Talamo is like a lot of guys his age.

His horse is also tweeting! http://twitter.com/I_Want_Revenge


And some great horse resources:


Ok ok ok, and now some non-horse Noodle Revue for you:

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Executives exploring Twitter as business tool

Todd Brink’s cigar-bearing image and his thoughts about music, chick flicks and process improvement have made him a Twitter rock star of sorts.

The Wisconsin executive has nearly 3,000 Twitter followers. What’s more, he is ranked No. 1 among the Twitter Elite in Milwaukee on Twitter Grader, a free service that lets people measure their power and reach on Twitter

It may seem an unlikely classification, but Brink represents a growing breed of executives who recognize the power of the tweet as a way to connect with customers and build brand loyalty.

Brink (@toddbrink) is director of process improvement for Boldt Construction Co., a national contractor with 1,500 employees based in Appleton. Brink stressed he is representing himself on Twitter and not Boldt Construction, although many of his tweets are work-related.


Slate: Barack Obama Sent Somali Pirates a Trio of Snipers

He also sent a friend request to Iran, became a fan of Stimulus, and deleted the group Guantanamo Bay Detainees 4EVA.


Conversation Starter: 7 Things This CEO Hates About Business

They are:

  1. Ego
  2. Money
  3. Travel
  4. Business Speak
  5. Meetings
  6. Business Books
  7. Time

The first point can probably apply to many in the digital business trends blogger industry.


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Three similarities between swine flu and the recession

April 29, 2009 | Written by Darius Razgaitis

Swine flu has taken a stranglehold on the news this week with Google News producing almost 42,000 news stories Wednesday compared to about 800 on the American economy taking a Q1 nosedive:

Google News: Swine Flu vs The Recession

Google News: Swine Flu vs The Recession

This juxtaposition of swine flu news and recession news highlights three digital trends that are affecting how businesses communicate. The three biggest similarities between them from a digital communications perspective are:

  1. Speed
  2. Credibility
  3. Language

Speed

Both swine flu and the recession have been reported on instantly and broadly, and businesses and governments have been expected to respond quickly in both cases. This has put pressure on spokespeople and executives to deliver extremely sensitive messages quickly and accurately. For both swine flu and the recession, mistakes and conflicts due to poor timing could lead to the cause of financial ruin or even literally death.

Credibility

The explosion of social media outlets has empowered anyone (or thing) with a connection to the Internet to spread news. Motives are often questionable and uncontrolled. But when controlling a pandemic or a stock market, it is imperative for health and financial experts to rise above the fray. The cacophony of voices in social media makes this difficult to do, but perhaps the advent of “semi-social media” (think Mahalo, Alltop) will give experts the visibility the public at large deserves.

Language

Another similarity between the two crises is that both have suffered from unfortunate nomenclature. Terms like “swine flu,” “toxic assets,” and “crisis” can lead to misinterpretation. For example several tweets on #swineflu caution against eating pork products, however, that is not how the flu is spread.

What lessons has your business learned from these events?

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The Noodle Revue

April 28, 2009 | Written by Darius Razgaitis

Long time, no noodle. See below for the latest news out of Ruder Finn and interesting digital business trends.

wires2


PR Week UK: Ruder Finn hires digital guru Ged Carrol


PR Week: Intent is the New Demographic

(by Ruder Finn’s head of digital media, Tyler Pennock)


RF Voices: Seizing Opportunity from Disaster

(from Ruder Finn co-CEO, Kathy Bloomgarden)


K@W: Hope, Greed and Fear: The Psychology behind the Financial Crisis

It’s not really about digital business trends, but it is fascinating…


McKinsey Says Cloud Computing ‘Makes No Sense’


GigaOm: Russ Daniels, HP’s Cloud Guru

It may not make sense to McKinsey, but it does to HP…


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