OK. I get that it’s an arch statement. Yahoo leads off its release about its $1 billion acquisition of Tumblr with the subhead, “Promises not to screw it up.” And given that Yahoo now is led by someone who for years subscribed to the corporate slogan, “Don’t be evil,” it makes sense.

However, I can’t get over the feeling that, if you and I had a billion dollars to spend, we’d probably aim a little higher.

One of the benefits of having a company blog is that I get a chance to figuratively peek over the shoulders of my colleagues to see what they are interested in and what they choose to write about. And that made for interesting reading over the past week.

Chris Hadfield returned the magic to social media. This week, @Cmdr_Hadfield returned to earth from the International Space Station. “At a time when the the world’s second favourite social network is courting the corporate world in its bid to establish a viable monetization strategy, Hadfield has reawakened some of the excitement created in the the early days of Twitter and he did it by tweeting in the moment,”  Sherrilynne Starkie wrote. “Canadians, and people around the globe, are more than engaged…they are enthralled. They feel as though they have been part of the mission and they adore Hadfield for taking them along.”

Social media as a channel to reach the “Mass Affluent.” Katie Charbonneau reported on a survey from LinkedIn and CogentResearch of social media use by the “Mass Affluent,” the approximately 40 million American investors with assets of between $100,000 and $1 million. This is a target group for many upscale products and services. And there’s some good insight here into their expectations and use of social media. Among the insights: “There is a 25-40% opportunity gap between the information the “Mass Affluent” want and the information actually provided by banks, brokerages and credit cards.” A gap between expectations and delivery is a great opportunity waiting to be exploited.

The case for motion graphics videos. “Today, consumers are bombarded with content.  Brands are pushing to be more creative. While live action video footage is arguably the best way to humanize a brand, viewers also want something that is visually appealing, entertaining and informative,” wrote Ashlea LeCompte. And that need is often filled by motion graphics.

Thornley Fallis: Graphics & Animation Reel 2013 from ThornleyFallis on Vimeo.

Are you gender biased in your listening and retweeting habits? You may not know it, but you probably are. “Twee-Q is an experiment from a Swedish organization called Crossing Borders that … calculates a Twitter Equality Quotient that they describe as a simple score derived from how often you retweet men or women,” wrote Diane Begin. “The tool takes your last 100 tweets to come up with a score. The closer you are to 50-50, the higher your Twee-Q.” I tested it on my @thornley Twitter feed and discovered that I retweet women 60% of the time, giving me a Twee-Q of 6.6. Hmmm.

Five steps to success in online public engagement. A great post by Pierre Killeen, who has built a highly successful practice helping organizations develop purposeful discussion with their communities of interest. Unlike the car commercials, you can do this at home.

Thank you to my colleagues at Thornley Fallis for these entertaining and informative reads. The time I spent with your posts was well worth it.

In this week’s episode of the Inside PR podcast, Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman and I talk about the challenge of determining what news coverage we can trust when traditional media outlets vie with social media to be first with the news.

For me, this is like moving around in a darkened room. We know we’ve had contact with something, but we can’t really see what it is. Judgment and speculation become overly close neighbors at times like these.

How do you decide where to place your trust when news is breaking online?

Too many words about Google Reader, Google and market dominance, innovation and the continuing importance of RSS feeds. Yes, I’m embarrassed that I couldn’t stifle myself.

But I really do believe this.

Inside PR » Blog Archive » Inside PR 3.29: Google Reader, Feedly, and the perils of a dominant competitor.

Are you like me, still testing a number of possible Google Reader replacements?

Well, it appears that Feedly is emerging as the popular Reader alternative. TechCrunch reported that Feedly “became the No. 1 news app across all three top mobile platforms (iPhone, iPad and Android) this week. It even climbed into the “Top Overall” section within all three stores.” This follows news that Feedly had picked up over 500,000 new users within days of Google’s announcement that it would shut down Reader.

I use Google Alerts to track references to my company and industry. Over time, I’ve noticed that the results have been sporadic and unreliable. I thought it was a problem with the search terms I’d set up. It turns out the problem wasn’t at my end. It’s at Google’s end. I found a Danny Sullivan post from mid-February noting that “It was awesome; but for several weeks, it’s become nearly useless.“ Google assured Sullivan that they were fixing the problem with alerts. But they didn’t. I’ve seen no change with Google Alerts. It’s continued to miss finding stuff I know it should be locating, Sullivan posted last week. Shortly after that, Mashable noted the same problem and investigated. Their conclusion: “Something definitely seems to be broken with the current Google Alerts system.”

Oh Oh. Is Google lavishing the same indifference on Google Alerts that presaged the shutdown of Reader?

… doesn’t mean we should.

 Rob Lane, CEO and co-founder of MyMusic.com, will be the speaker at the January Third Tuesday Toronto #3TYYZ and Third Tuesday Ottawa #3TYOW.

Rob is a serial entrepreneur. And he will share with us the lessons he has gained from founding two social companies – MyMusic.com and, before that, Overlay.tv.  What he has learned about creating something real from the germ of an idea. About building and sustaining community with the people who care about you. About creating a social business – one that listens to what people are saying about it and adjusts its actions and structure to act upon what it hears. About building a team that can create something extraordinary. And about marketing what you’ve created through both social and traditional channels.

In a nutshell, Rob Lane is a smart entrepreneur who has a lot to share and will do that with the Third Tuesday community. If you’re in or near either Ottawa or Toronto, click over to the Third Tuesday Toronto and Third Tuesday Ottawa Meetup sites to get your ticket to hear from and meet Rob Lane.

About MyMusic.com
If you’re like me, music is a constant in your life. We listen actively and passively. It surrounds us. Reflects our experiences, environment and friends. And it’s also all over the place. In books we’ve read. On entertainment Web sites. On an MP3 player. Or a Facebook page. The radio. In magazines. Our contact with music is spread everywhere and we have to go looking in many places to pull it all together.

“MyMusic was founded by three guys who love music but hate mindlessly scouring the web to unearth the best content available. We want all the great music content that we know is out there to come to us. We want it sifted, sorted and filtered so that we get exactly and only the stuff we are interested in. We also want a beautiful way to access all that content, anytime we want, anywhere we are. We couldn’t find anything like that online, so we built MyMusic.

“MyMusic.coms’ mission is “to be a single place where you can go to find, discover and share everything that makes your online music experience fresh, exciting, and uniquely you.”

You can use MyMusic to can save images, videos, music, articles, etc. in “magazines”  that reflect your interests. Specific artists. Genres of music. Places where music is played. Your collection of music. Whatever you want. And the site watches what you post so that it can suggest content that matches your interests. The more you post the smarter it gets.

If you’re interested, check out the Thelonious Monk page I made on MyMusic.com. This took me all of 10 minutes from the time I found my first clip to the time I published it. Very user friendly.

Social Media Breakfasts too

One more thing. Rob also gives back to the social media community in another way. He’s the co-founder or Social Media Breakfast Ottawa. Rob and his co-organizers, Ryan Anderson and Simon Chen, have given Ottawa’s social media community an opportunity to meet and hear from smart speakers for the past four years.

Thank you to Third Tuesday’s sponsors

Third Tuesday is supported by great sponsors - Cision Canada and Rogers Communications - who believe in our community and help us to bring speakers not just to Toronto but to Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver as well. Without the sponsors we couldn’t make Third Tuesday a truly Canadian affair. So, thank you to the sponsors of the Third Tuesday 2012-13 season: Cision Canada and Rogers Communications.

As we enter 2013, the transformation in the world of communications that is driven by the mass adoption of social media and mobile devices is accelerating.

The public relations industry is not immune from the impact of these changes. And this has disrupted the competitive marketplace.

Over the past year, I found my company, Thornley Fallis, repeatedly competing for assignments against non-traditional competitors. Ad agencies invading our turf. Digital boutiques. Marketing agencies. Management consultants.

An increasing proportion of the assignments we won from clients incorporated digital communications as a core element. Throughout 2012, we saw the budgets for these assignments shift away from traditional public relations activities to digital. The budgets didn’t shrink. The allocations against digital activities increased.

In a world like this, if you want to be a Public Relations Survivor, you must be willing to reinvent yourself constantly. That’s what the most successful firms in the communications marketplace are doing. And that’s what we’re doing at my firm.

And here’s the indicator that drives this home. Today, only about half of Thornley Fallis’ revenues are from what would have been considered traditional public relations services. The other half? Video production, public engagement, content marketing, design and development.

You’ve probably noticed the absence of social media from that list. Where’s social? Integrated across everything we do. What was hot a few years ago has become simply the common entry fee.

What’s hot now? Content marketing. The creation of social objects that people will connect around. Understanding and building public engagement. Making connections with people who care about our products and services and the things we care about.

We see ourselves as much different from the public relations practitioners of old. We don’t define our horizons within the constraints of earned media. Most of our programs include paid keyword advertising to seed awareness among those most likely to be interested. As the  traditional media distribution deteriorated, we realized that placing great content and counting on organic search simply wasn’t good enough. So we moved into the territory of the advertising agencies. Not as advocates of advertising first, but as advocates of a true integrated solution in which each medium has a role to play.

Yes, we are still a PR agency. But when people ask me what we do, I answer in a way that is much different from the answer I provided a few years ago. Today, we “provide insight, create remarkable experiences and connect people to the things they care about.”

And that’s how we make  sure that we are Public Relations Survivors. Not by clinging to the past, but by evolving with the changing communications environment.

———–

If you found this post interesting, these sources provide even more to think about:

PR Agencies’ Lost Year by Peter Himler

10 Things I’ve Learned from an Advertising Agency by Ed Lee

When the Corporate Social Strategist Role Goes Away by Jeremiah Owyang

It has happened again. Someone close to our family has been diagnosed with cancer. A serious case.

Cancer is a bitch. It strikes the undeserving. It shows no quarter to young or old, good or bad. It is devastating not only to the stricken, but to all those who know and love that person.

Cancer can be beat. It takes all of the science available to our healthcare professionals. But it takes more. It takes hope and determination and belief.

I know that our friend is not the only person who will receive news like this. It’s always devastating. But especially at this time of year.

So to you, my friend, and all the people who receive news that fills us with doubt and fear, I can only say that my thoughts, my will, my prayers, my heart are with you.

If there is a power above, some logic and order that make sense of this, I hope it will show itself now.

Cancer is a bitch.

It’s the end, at least for this year. The final episode of Inside PR for 2012 has been posted.

In today’s episode, Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman, I look back at the trends in 2012 that stood out for us. Things like the continuing evolution of social media to photos and video; the convergence of advertising, PR, digital agencies to compete directly against one another; the evolution of search to incorporate personal profiles and social interaction. And above all, for me, the stripping away of my idealism about the blogosphere that came when I read Ryan Holiday‘s “Trust Me, I’m Lying.”

Have a listen. Let us know what you think. In a comment on this blog, on the Inside PR blog, on the Inside PR Google+ Community or on the Inside PR Facebook group. Anyway that you want. We’d love to hear your views.

We’ll be back in 2013 as Inside PR begins its seventh year.

Have a safe and happy holiday season.

Attached Media: audio/mpeg (15 154 ko)

Sad news today: Laurier LaPierre, Canadian broadcast icon and former Canadian Senator, has passed away.

I met Laurier when we worked together on Sheila Copps‘ unsuccessful campaign for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada. Laurier may have been fighting for a lost cause, but he did it with enthusiasm, generosity and the highest principles.

It was an honour to have known him. And a true delight to have spent time with him.

—————–

For a perspective on Laurier LaPierre’s contribution to journalism, read Cecil Rossner’s Grilling the Guest – Laurier LaPierre and the Host Seat Interview on the Canadian Journalism Project blog.

Episode 3.19 of the Inside PR podcast has just been published. In this week’s episode, Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman and I talk about a number of things that caught our eye.

First up: Google+ Communities

Google has added Communities to its Google+ Network. Think Yahoo Groups. Discussion groups organized around specific subjects.

Introducing the Inside PR Google+ Community

We’ve set up a Community for Inside PR listeners on Google+. If you like the podcast and would like to suggest future topics or discuss each week’s episode, click over to our Google+ Community and join the conversation.

Worth watching

Will the Inside PR Google+ community get as many members as the Inside PR Facebook group? Will there be better discussion on Google+? (I’m betting the conversation on Google+ will be much better, if not more voluminous.)

Twitter upgrades(?) with Filters on Photos

Is this a step forward? Or a defensive move in response to Instagram pulling its integration with Twitter? I’m not sure about the companies’ moves. I bet our listeners have more insight into this than I do.

Facebook drops its commitment to user democracy

Does anybody care? Was this ever a real thing or did Facebook’s thresholds so high that it simply fed a feeling of powerlessness from the outset?

Listen to the complete podcast

And tell us what you think

This week, I’m encouraging Inside PR listeners to join the Google+ Community and find out whether this will be an instant success, a slow build, or a complete fizzle.

Attached Media: audio/mpeg (15 229 ko)

This morning, I arrived to a darkened office. That’s not surprising, because it was 7 AM and I was the first person to arrive.

As I turned on the lights and walked into our then–empty office, I realized that I’m a lucky guy.

Why? Because 16 years after having co-founded Thornley Fallis, I still love my job.

Yes, there are challenges. There are disappointments. There is stress. But I know that I can rise to these challenges and be the master of my destiny. That’s invigorating.

And I love what I do. I love watching the changing patterns of communication and the evolving relationships we have with the institutions around us. I love learning from what I observe and changing the way that I apply my own skills for myself and for my clients.

I chose to be the first person in the office this morning because I wanted to get to work to tackle the day’s challenges, to stretch myself, to learn and to do something that I find meaningful.

So it’s 7 AM in a darkened office, and I feel I’m a lucky guy.

You’ve had a busy day at the office, using your mobile phone or tablet pretty much constantly. Then it’s time to rush out the door to your favourite event, like Third Tuesday Toronto. You arrive and you want to check in and begin Tweeting and what do you discover? Your battery is almost dead. So you start searching for an electric outlet and asking your friends if they have the connector you need for your phone or tablet.

Well, that almost happened to me last night at Third Tuesday Toronto #3TYYZ with Julien Smith. But not quite. Because our Third Tuesday sponsor, Rogers Communications was on hand with their charging station to enable me and anyone else at the event to recharge our mobile devices enough to get us through the evening.

So, thank you to Rogers Communications for being a generous sponsor of Third Tuesday and then going even farther and offering us the extra benefit of two staff and equipment to keep us charged and connected.

(Disclosure: Rogers did not ask for this post. And yes, they are a sponsor of Third Tuesday and a sometime client of my firm. And yes, I am a happy Rogers customer – cellphone, tablet, home Internet, home phone, cable TV. Disclosure complete. )

Julien Smith is a smart guy who has given a lot of thought to how and why we connect with one another in real life and online and how we build meaningful relationships through these connections.

Last night, he kicked off his two-city Third Tuesday mini-tour to promote his new book, The Impact Equation, which he co-authored with another smart guy, Chris Brogan.

Julien did not disappoint the Third Tuesday community. He gave us a lot to think about in a witty, laugh out loud presentation.

I’ve captured some of the highlights and bon mots from his presentation using Storify. Enjoy.

When social media was shiny and new, we talked about it constantly. Every new tool, every new publishing platform, every new social network fascinated by enabling us to reach out, to be heard, to connect with others in a new way, in a way that we couldn’t previously.

Social media gave the people formerly known as the audience a voice. Social media gave us all a means to publish what we thought. Social media gave us all a means to connect 24 hours a day seven days a week, regardless of where we were, with our friends, our family, others who held our interest.

But a few short years later, social media is no longer the new thing. It is a fixture in our lives.

That doesn’t mean that social media has lost its relevance. It’s just that our attention has moved away from the shiny new objects, the new tools, to what they can help us do and how that affects the way that we relate to others and to society.

Julien Smith and Chris Brogan are two smart guys who’ve spent a lot of time considering the interplay of social media and people, communities and organizations. And as they’ve done that they’ve gained insight into how people connect and form meaningful online relationships. They’ve tested their theories through podcasting, blogging, speaking, real-world events, by trying out virtually every means of connecting with others and then examining the effect that they had. Through them, we see that each and every one of us can be heard, can find community, can form relationships, can have impact.

In addition to their online efforts, Julien and Chris shared their insights through their book,  Trust Agents, a New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-seller. In Trust Agents, they examined the interplay of trust, reputation and influence in social media. And Julien travelled to  Third Tuesdays across Canada to meet and talk to the community of communicators, marketers, public servants, business people and students who wanted to know more about how to build online community.

Now Julien and Chris are back with a new book, The Impact Equation, their follow-up to Trust Agents. And once again, Julien is coming to Third Tuesday Toronto #3TYYZ and Third Tuesday Ottawa #3TYOW to share his insights.

A lot has happened in two years. No longer is social media a shiny new thing for techies. Now, it’s mainstream. We’re all creating, sharing and connecting on it. But are we making being as effective as we’d like to be? Are we having the impact we want to have?

Julien and Chris believe that we can have the impact we want to have. And they’ve charted out a formula – the Impact Equation – to guide us in this.

“We’re not writing about Twitter and Facebook and Google plus and interest and path, because who cares? Those things are temporary and they aren’t the things that matter. The people are what matters,” Julien and Chris write. The real focus of The Impact Equation is “about getting a larger audience to see and act upon your ideas and learning how to build a community around that experience to take it all to an even higher level.”

The Impact Equation is something that everyone who participates in social networks or creates and shares content can use. And Julien Smith has tested what he writes about and personally demonstrated that we can have an impact on the world around us.

If you’d like to participate in Third Tuesday with Julien Smith, you can register online to attend either Third Tuesday Toronto #3TYYZ or Third Tuesday Ottawa #3TYOW.

The Impact Equation could make a real difference in how you approach online community and publishing.

BONUS: Every attendee will receive a copy of The Impact Equation when you check in at the event. So, you not only can hear and meet Julien, you can get your copy of the book personally signed by the author.

Thank you to our sponsors

Third Tuesday is supported by great sponsors - Cision Canada and Rogers Communications - who believe in our community and help us to bring speakers not just to Toronto but to Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver as well. Without the sponsors we couldn’t make Third Tuesday a truly Canadian affair. So, thank you to the sponsors of the Third Tuesday 2012-13 season: Cision Canada and Rogers Communications.

Gini Dietrich is everywhere! Including this month, at Third Tuesday Toronto #3TYYZ and Third Tuesday Ottawa #3TYOW.

Over the past two years, she has built a large online following at her blog, Spin Sucks, on Twitter and on Facebook. She is building Spin Sucks Pro as a platform for marketing expertise tailored to the needs of senior executives. She has become a sought-after speaker. She finds time to co-host the Inside PR podcast with Martin Waxman and me. And she manages to hold down a day job as CEO of Arment Dietrich. (Disclosure: Arment Dietrich and Thornley Fallis are business partners.)

With all this on the go, Gini found the time to co-author with Geoff Livingston a book that every contemporary marketer should read: Marketing in the Round, a practical guide to integrating the traditional and new tools of marketing into a coherent, effective whole.

And now, Gini is making the time to be our next speaker at Third Tuesday. She’ll join us on July 24 (Ottawa) and July 25 (Toronto.) Gini offers great insight into marketing in the connected era. Register online to attend Third Tuesday Ottawa or Third Tuesday Toronto to hear and meet her.

Attendees will receive a copy of Marketing in the Round

That’s right. Your admission fee pays for a copy of the book. All attendees will receive a copy of Marketing in the Round. That gives you not just the opportunity to hear Gini speak, but also to meet her and have her personally dedicate and sign your copy of the book.

Thank you to the Sponsors who support Third Tuesday

As you know, Third Tuesday is a community-oriented, volunteer-driven event. And we wouldn’t be able to bring great speakers like Gini Dietrich to Third Tuesdays across the country without the support of some like-minded sponsors. We’ve been lucky to have some great companies step up over the past several years to help us make Third Tuesday happen. Big thanks are due to CNW Group, Rogers Communications, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority, Radian6 and Cision Canada for making the 2011/12 Third Tuesday season possible.

Interested in learning more about Gini Dietrich and Marketing in the Round?

Mitch Joel interviews Gini Dietrich and Geoff Livingston on the Six Pixels of Separation podcast.

Georgina Laidlaw and Valeria Maltoni reviewed Marketing in the Round

Bob LeDrew interviews Gini Dietrich on the FIR Book Club

Like more and more people, you’ve made the switch to the Chrome browser. But you quickly discover a glaring absence: the basic install does not display the orange RSS icon in the address bar when you are on a site that offers a feed.

Dave Winer reminds us that we don’t have to live without RSS when we use the Chrome Browser. In fact, Google itself publishes an extension that restores the orange RSS button to your browser address bar.

Get the RSS Subscription Extension (by Google) in the Chrome web store. Install it. Subscribe to the content sources that you don’t want to miss.

Are you chafing at the constraints of the closed app world? Are you still waiting for the potential of HTML5 to be fulfilled? So, what’s the hold up?

Jenn Webb offers a an excellent overview of the current discussions about HTML5, apps, publishing and the way forward, with links to the original articles. Well worth your time to read.