When the Messenger has the Megaphone

"That's the paradox of PR peoples' large, personal media footprint -- they can't use their own access to large numbers of people to promote their clients."

via Tom Foremesky @ siliconvalleywatcher.com

Tom Foremski notes that some PR professionals have a larger reach online than journalists, which presents both challenges and opportunities. He also adds that journalists will need to become more promotional. I suspect this will be easier as more writers turn free agents, which two high fliers did just this week.

Still, as PR professionals expand their networks online, we need to bring our A-game when it comes to transparency. Whenever I am knowingly mention a client I will always disclose as such - that's a commitment every PR professional on Twitter should commit to. I suspect many already do.

Social Service for Success - Simple

I love stories like this one from a small iPhone app developer that acts the way I wish some larger companies would - and in the process become wildly successful through service. This is such a simple formula. Why don't more act this way?

"This is our customer service approach:
1. Answer ALL emails and tweets.
2. Build a support site that is SEO’d and contains all the questions people ask (support.gymu.com).
3. Find our evangelists and love them.
4. Find our haters and love them more than our own mothers.
5. Do whatever it takes to fix a customer’s problem, even if that means meeting them to give them pre-release code!"

Corporate Use of Social Media is Untapped as Most Lurk - Deloitte Study

Deloitte is out with a new study that finds "continued maturation of the enterprise’s use of communities and social media." However, participation levels remain low as most just lurk. Summary follows or can be found here ...

Charticle: The Battle for Real-Time Search

Ann Smarty at ProductiveWise sizes up the various options for tapping into real-time search - Twitter, Facebook, Google and Friendfeed. Personally, I am finding Google's new search options to be outstanding - an addicting.

Google Preps Server-Side Clipboard

via googlesystem.blogspot.com

A Google pilot program unearthed by the Google Operating System blog - a clipboard in the clouds. I have wanted something like this for awhile, but hope that it will sync across computers and devices.