I am on a small propeller plane flying from the lovely hills of Donegal, Ireland to the hustle and bustle of Amsterdam for a tradeshow.  I started my vacation nearly 11 days ago with a week in Dublin, followed by a long weekend in Donegal.  Dublin, as many of you probably know, is like many big cities.  There are restaurants and stores and lovely hotels for tea…and occasionally you’ll find a Wi-Fi hotspot.

The later part of my vacation however, was very different.  You see, Donegal is the home of my grandfather.  Instead of spending my time searching for a Wi-Fi hotspot, I sat with my great aunt and great uncle and heard stories about the birth of my grandfather and his 8 siblings and what life was like 70 and 80 years ago.  We sat at her kitchen table, drinking tea and eating scones and virtual time stood still.

During my time there, we visited relatives. They all live within a few kilometers of each other – aunts and uncles, 2^nd and 3^rd cousins….all sharing the common bond of our family matriarch – Granny.  I had tea, ate biscuits and took pictures.

The second day of my visit, we woke to a strong frost and a light snow.  There were no cars on the road so it was in our best interest to wait until the afternoon to drive, when the frost would melt.  In the meantime, I sat in the kitchen with my Great Aunt and worked on the family tree for my generation – all of my 3^rd cousins (all 118 of them!) their ages and the number in each limb in the family.  My aunt would talk and she would bake. Then, she would talk some more and she would bake some more.  In all the hours that we sat there, my cell phone never rang and the beep of an email never interrupted…you see…I was unplugged.

In the precious moments of the last few days, I learned an important lesson that you can not come across easily.  As hard as we work most of the year, it is vital that we sit back and take time to get back to our roots.  For me, that meant unplugging.  My time of being unplugged has come to an end as I head to the ISE tradeshow in Amsterdam.  And as irony would have it, I will continue to stay in connection with a handful of my cousins…through Facebook.

No, this post isn’t about the song played at every wedding this year from Beyoncé. (Although this clip from SNL puts a smile on my face every. single. time.)

Denis Pombriant wrote a great piece earlier this month for CRM Buyer based on new research from Pingdom indicating that most social networking and social media sites are frequented by more women than men. As a woman, I don’t find this all that shocking. Not only do I have more female “friends” on-line, but based on the actual interactions from these friends on social networking sites, it’s clear who the social sex is. I had to set up my own husband’s Facebook page just to get him to join! But I digress…

What I did find interesting (and Denis does, too) is what the data doesn’t illustrate. He says, “Think about the skill set that we prize in sales and marketing people. How does that skill set align with the people in the social strata?”

So what does that mean for those of us trying to reach out to consumers? In PR in 2009, we have been telling our clients to jump on social networking sites and get involved. But given this new data, we must take it a step further and explore whether or not we are missing a large portion of the population who aren’t on these social networking sites.  And those that are on the sites, well, we need to ensure our message is clear to the audience.

As we close out another year and look to what will work in the PR industry in 2010, the discussion will continue – how do we bridge the on-line vs. off-line gap. And the age-old question, how do we bridge the gender gap?

I welcome your comments.

Recently, I was browsing through my Google Reader RSS feed for a particular industry topic and become frustrated with the lack of quality and relevant content. I then turned to my Twitter network and had much better luck. This got me thinking about the relationship between RSS feeds, Twitter, and information flow and management overall.

This isn’t a novel idea – a quick Google search pulls up a number of articles on the topic. But I wanted to know how real people are using RSS feeds and Twitter. So, I decided to throw out the following idea to my Twitter (and Facebook) network:

As you can see below, the response was mixed.

Of course, this is not a substitute for scientific research – it’s only a handful of people from my professional and personal network. That being said, its value to me lies in the fact that these are people within my reach – a good mix of personal friends, colleagues and other professionals I’ve connected with for one reason or another.

So, are RSS feeds dead? No, I don’t believe so – at least not yet. However, I do think that the way we receive information is changing, and that includes RSS feeds. Not only are your Twitter contacts bringing new, relevant content to your attention, but you can also get information straight from the source as nearly every publication out there has at least one Twitter account. In fact, many are linked to their own RSS feeds – easily providing the same content without the added hassle of a RSS reader.

Taking it one step further, you can even set up RSS feeds from Twitter searches to pull in all content on a specific topic. For example, say you want to keep track of comments and news about the upcoming green building show, West Coast Green. A simple search using the #WCG hashtag gives you a real-time conversation:

Signing up for this RSS feed is now just as simple as clicking on “Feed for this query.” Of course, you can also get the same results from a Tweetdeck search, but I can see the value of separate RSS feeds if you’re looking at more than just one or two topics at a time.

Bottom line? What happens next is partly dependent on us and how we take advantage of the real-time information flow from services like Twitter. With a host of management tools available, anyone can create a powerful network and customized information flow (I’m a fan of Tweetdeck, but find what works for you). You just can’t get that level of customization or opportunities for social interactions from an RSS feed.

What about you? Do you check Google Reader or Tweetdeck every day? What other applications do you use? How do you manage the information flow?

New technologies are always evolving and changing the way we communicate. According to research from IPG’s Universal McCann and AOL, “One out of every seven minutes of media consumption today takes place via mobile devices…That’s expected to grow by 60 percent over the next two years.” Many of our clients are looking into website redesigns in order to make them more mobile-friendly. It’s interesting to see this shift. No longer is just having a blog good enough. Now it must be mobilized. And in doing so, we are finding that content must be refreshed more frequently, so as not to get lost in the shuffle

MediaPost recently reported on a new survey by Princeton Survey Research International, which found that 90 percent of Internet users between 18 – 29 use video sharing sites, up from 72 percent one year ago. But that’s not all. Online adults ages 30 – 49 also showed big gains over the past year; 67 percent now use video-sharing sites, up from 57 percent in 2008. So we now work with our clients to produce more video content and add pictures and videos to press releases.

Additionally, how we get news and information is changing on a regular (dare I say, daily?) basis. As PR professionals, we focus on people who are influencers. Traditionally, this has been the media or industry analysts. While these folks remain influential, there is a new group of influencers. There are blogs that comment on or repackage the news, some of whom have larger followings than the original content (e.g. Gawker).  People  now regularly forward news to their friends and colleagues via social networks and Twitter.

PR is also an ever-evolving game. Not so long ago, press releases went out via fax. You read that right, fax. That little machine in the corner of the copy room that the interns look at in bewilderment. That was cutting edge. Then came e-mail. Now, as how people get their news is in a state of constant change, we are continually adapting to make sure that we are getting the word out to the right people in the way they want to receive it.  I guess it is not surprising that change has come to news, which after all, is the business of reporting on change.

If you aren’t familiar with TEDTalks, I suggest you check out their site and catch up on some of the interesting conversations going on. I try to check back for new and interesting perspectives and came across this great presentation by Clay Shirky, “How social media can make history.”

Clay delves deep into this growth of media, pointing out that there have only been 4 times in the last 500 years where the change in media can be called a revolution – the printing press, conversation media (such as telephones), recorded media (photos, movies, videos) and the electromagnetic spectrum (radio). He goes on to say that the evolution of the Internet and social media has really allowed people to become producers of content.

We, once consumers, are NOW producing the content and leading the age of media. Wow.

You almost take that with a grain of salt, but when you take a look back at how Twitter and other social networking channels have allowed us to report news before the larger media channels, you see how powerful your voice can really be. This ability is your social capital.

In some countries, such as China, the outspokenness of citizens has become quite the problem. No longer able to filter through the content, citizens’ voices are being suppressed with the banning of such services.

Even in the United States, we have seen companies and publications try to suppress their employees’ social capital (i.e. The Associated Press). As you’ll see in Clay Shirky’s presentation, not even Obama – the President of the United States – suppressed people and their opinions on his network during the campaign. I completely agree with Clay when he points out that social media and networks should CONVENE individuals.

He leaves you hanging with the question, “How can we make best use of this media, even though it means changing the way we’ve always done it?” So, I ask you, are you embracing the change?

It’s time for a fractured fairy tale: Spinning the Web: P.R. in Silicon Valley, courtesy of the New York Times.  Once upon a time in a Sand Hill Road conference room, an entrepreneur, a VC and a PR consultant met to discuss the launch of Wordnik, a website about language and word usage. The PR person suggests a press tour of leading tech blogs (TechCrunch, GigaOm, etc.).  This suggestion is rejected by the VC as not a good match for a language website. Instead, they decide that they would have influential Silicon Valley entrepreneurs mention Wordnik in social media.  As so it came to be.  Digg founder, Kevin Rose, twittered that Wordnik was “truly amazing.”

From there, people started madly retweeting, which led to Wordnik becoming a trending topic on Twitter. Then, everyone in the Valley was abuzz about Wordnik. People will look back on these past few months as the “Summer of Wordnik.” And they all lived happily ever after.

Except that in the real world, the launch of Wordnik went virtually unnoticed.  As Michael Arrington reported in TechCrunch, Wordnik received a small blip in traffic and then quickly returned to its previous minuscule level. Since this is a fractured fairy tale, the frog doesn’t get turned into a prince.  But there are some lessons to be learned.

Hipsters vs. Word Nerds:  Before starting a launch plan, the first imperative is to determine “who is the target audience?” Then, look for the best way to reach them.  Here the target audience was …. Wordniks. The VC was correct that word nerds really don’t follow mainstream tech blogs.  But targeting hipsters using twitter is more about making a fashion statement than a viable launch plan for a language website.  

Something Old, Something New:  Much of the debate generated by the Times article is about whether social media is replacing PR. This is based on a false premise. The rise of new technologies doesn’t mean that the old technologies are banished to a virtual thrift shop. The new supplements the established. The old technology adapts to fit in with the new. At the time of the original Fractured Fairy Tales, PR people mailed press releases to the local newspapers. Today, the number of communication tools and influencers has increased exponentially. But press releases now incorporate SEO and still remain in the mix.

PR and Social Media, Better Together: Combining PR and social media into an integrated strategy can deliver great results. PR provides an efficient way to quickly gain traction with the targeted influencers and audience. Social media builds connections with these folks.  By social media, I mean participating in conversations on Twitter and Facebook, joining the blogosphere by writing and commenting on blogs rather than having Internet celebrities tweet on your behalf. You could argue it would be better to just use social media to gradually grow an audience (especially with a niche product).  But these days, VCs and board members want to see immediate results, as evidenced by Wordnik’s VC participating in the PR discussion. Though prior to launching a PR campaign, it is important that the product is ready for the attention (see: PR for Tech Start Ups – Are you ready for your close up?).

The Happy Ending: Completion of a product launch should be the first of many interactions with customers, partners, and influencers. There are many opportunities to build, even on a less than successful launch. After all, it’s more important where you end, than how you start. And this is where this post happily ends.

Popular social networks, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter seem to  think that they would be better if they more like one of the other social networks. Instead, they really should follow the advice of Popeye whose motto was “I yam what I yam, and that’s all that I yam.”

LinkedIn: LinkedIn has developed a case of Facebook envy. Each person’s page now has a Facebook-like status box at the top asking “What are you working on now?”.  I can’t recall anyone actually using this box (other than reposts from Twitter or Facebook). 

Attaching a social element to LinkedIn is the equivalent of a three piece suit with a backwards baseball cap. People use LinkedIn because it is all business. This means there is no risk of an embarrassing photo turning up in a search by a potential employer or customer.

Facebook: Facebook is turning itself into Twitter with pictures. A person’s home page is now dominated by Twitter-like status updates, accompanied by photos and attachments. Welcome to the slide show from Hell.  Facebook now puts pictures of kids, pets, and vacations front and center on a daily basis. As much I like keeping up with friends and family, I prefer the ability to decide when and if I want to see another cute cat picture or a 2×3 picture of someone’s dinner.

Once popular Facebook applications have been moved to the four corners of the site. Once popular applications like Superpoke (thowing sheep!) , Funwall and “Cities I Have Visited” now are the Web 2.0 equivalents of Golden Oldies that evoke nostalgia for a bygone era. While many of these applications were time wasters, Facebook is draining the social part that makes it unique.  

People who are power status updaters eventualy move to Twitterand and make Facebook a secondary source via an application that posts their tweets on Facebook. Take a look at your Facebook news stream and you will likely see many standard Twitter abbreviations and hashtags. More and more, Facebook  is making it seem like all of the action is on Twitter.

Twitter: Twitter’s identity crisis revolves around what is wants to be when it grows up. Twitter still does not have a viable revenue model. In a recent blog post, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said that it is looking  at account authentication, management tools, and discovery mechanisms. Twitter has done some preliminary experiments with advertising on user’s profile page.

But I think that they will look to follow Google and monetize on search. By virtue of Twitter posts mostly being public,  a company can search Twitter to find out what people are saying about them, their competitors, and the hot issues in the markets in near real-time. Twitter can derive revenue from selling ads on search pages, premium search tools, or making a deal with with one of the large search companies.

Sticking to short communications in real time and monetizing like Google should be a personality that wears well for Twitter.

Update: Thanks to everyone who participated and viewed our speaker panel discussing “Sustainable Innovation in a Recession” via our Live Stream and at our San Francisco Earth Day event on April 16, 2009 .  We will be posting videos of the panel discussion here on Vantage Points. So please bookmark and check back.

More details can be found here: Celebrating Earth Day – Vantage Style

Live streaming video by Ustream

Attention all folks attending CTIA in Las Vegas. Our friends at Qik will be hosting a Tweet Up on Wednesday,  April 1, at 7-10 pm.  The location is at the Las Vegas Hilton, the Pool Area on the Third Floor. The Hilton is connected to the North Hall of the Convention Center.

This is a great opportunity to connect with people interested in the intersection of social media and the mobile industry. This also is a great opportunity to build on the success of the Tweet Up at Mobile World Congress.

You can sign up and get more information at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=69119667494. If you are not on Facebook, feel free to post in the comments section if you are interested in attending. I will pass the information to the folks at Qik.We will post updates here on Vantage Points and on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Check for hash tag #CTIA on Twitter.

For more information about networking events at CTIA, check out the awesome list from Mobilslate and the Mobile Monday events:

Mobileslate: http://www.mobileslate.com/ctia

Mobile Monday: http://www.mobilemonday.net/

Update: DIDX is opening their event on Wednesday, April 1, 7:30-9 pm @ Gordon Biersch, 3987 Paradise Road. You can RSVP here and learn more here.

Look forward to meeting you there.

Nine months and two Facebook redesigns ago, Jennifer Kutz wrote a post about the Wisdom of the Crowd Goes to a Trade Show. She discussed the trend of trade shows opening the show agenda selection process to their audience.  She mentioned one proposed panel in particular: Privacy and Personalization – Oxymoron or the Perfect Match?, for the SXSW Interactive show in Austin, and invited people to vote for that panel.

As SXSWi just completed, I thought it would be fun to fill you in on how things turned out. Our efforts to get the word out about the panel was successful. Privacy and Personalization – Oxymoron or the Perfect Match? received enough support that it was selected. The Guardian featured the panel in an article: @SWSXi: The impossible balance between privacy and personalisation?, and called the topic: “one of SXSWi’s core conversations.” The picture on the top left of this post is from the panel courtesy of the Guardian.

The experience also gave us an insight into the power of blogs and social media to create conversation about key issues.  We used Facebook and Twitter to point people to Vantage Points to get the word out. Rather than asking or pitching people to vote for our client, all we did was to discuss the topic and offer people a link to vote. This was a departure from the traditional PR model. But we believed facilitating conversation was more appropriate for topic and the SXSWi show audience.

The wisdom of the crowd approach has extended to voting for awards. This year, CTIA is allowing people to vote for its Emerging Technology Awards and Best of Show.  One of  our clients, Ditech Networks is nominated for its cool mStage platform which allows people to use their voice to access web applications in the middle of a mobile phone call.  You can read more about it in Technology Review. If you would like to vote for mStage for Best of Show, follow this link and choose mStage (third from left on the third line) as one of your favorites.  Feel free to check out and vote some of the other great nominated products too. It is good to part of the crowd that leads.