Last December, in a guest post I wrote over on the Telegraph's Technology Blog, I gave some of my own predictions of social media trends I think we'll see in 2009.
Along a similar line, Trendspotting has shared an interesting slide show presenting Influencers Predictions for Social Media in 2009. It's worth a look:
There are just a few spaces left for a special seminar about blogging which Headshift is co-hosting in cooperation with Six Apart, makers of the blogging tool Movable Type.
The event, taking place this Thursday (25 Sept. 2008) in London, is aimed at helping senior editors, social media stakeholders, online community managers and those leading corporate blogging efforts to learn more about emerging tools and techniques for building participatory communities around their properties.
The event will provide participants with a strategic overview of blogging and a demonstration of creative techniques developed during my former role as the Head of Blogging at the BBC, and since evolved further by the social media team here at Headshift.
More specifically, guests at the event will learn:
Khalid Arif and Maarten Schenk from Six Apart will demonstrate the new functionality found in the latest release of Movable Type (4.2), and integration specialists from Headshift will discuss the benefits of combining blogging, page publishing and social networking in the new version of MT and showcase several interesting MT-based implementations.
We have room for just a few more participants so if you are interested in attending, and are able to make it to Headshift's Tower Bridge based headquarters on Thursday afternoon, you can request an invitation by emailing info@headshift.com with your details.
Oh, and did I mention, we're laying on free wine, beer and other refreshments...
Last night I gave a presentation at PR Newswire's Meet the Media event. I kicked off by asking the audience how many of them had come to learn how they could get their messages across to bloggers. At least half, perhaps two thirds, raised their hands. I then joked that, whilst it's a good question, it's not the first question they should be asking.
So I explained that the media industry, like PR, was trying to come to grips with the idea that people no long expect to be broadcast to, but want to have two way conversations. Conversations involve listening and I showed them how to do this using tools like technorati, twitter search, ice-rocket, etc. Then I suggested - and apparently scared one or two of them - that they might want to learn how to use RSS or even create their own aggregations using tools such as Yahoo Pipes or Xfruits.
Armed with the tools and methods for listening, PR people will be able to better understand, based on their own observations, that participation - open, honest, genuine participation - is by the best way to communicate messages within social media spaces.
One thing that didn't come up until some conversations following the presentation and Q&A is that, rather than sending stuff out to bloggers, more Marketing and PR people should start setting up their own sites where they aggregate, quote from and link to the discussions bloggers and others are having about their brands. I call this a "link tap".
Most bloggers regularly look at their statistics using tools such as statcounter or google analytics. One of the most useful statistics usually captured by these services is where inbound traffic is coming from. Tools such as Technorati go a step further in seeking out and keeping track of who links to who in the blogosphere, and assigning an "authority" rating based on link popularity. If you quote from and link to a blogger, chances are they'll know pretty quickly.
Not only does this mean they'll probably have a look at what you've had to say, but they'll also see that you're trying to participate in the same conversation they're having. It's a bit like flirting - just as a batted eyelash or smile from across the floor of a crowded nightclub might intice someone to approach and have a discussion, a link acts as an aknowledgement that you want to engage.
The best way for a PR to approach bloggers: set aside your broadcast model, learn to listen, start to understand, be authentic and honest about who you are and who you represent and - then and only then - start participating in their conversation.
If you're based in London, you can catch me speaking, alongside Michael Pranikoff, Director of Emerging Media at PR Newswire, and Robert Andrews of PaidContent, at the next PR Newswire Meet the Media event on 04 September 2008. The free events, sponsored by PR Week, are targeted primarily at newcomers to the Public Relations industry, help build knowledge and connections between PR and the media.
On 12 September, I'll be at the International Broadcasting Conference in Amsterdam, for which I've organised a panel which will include Chris Vallance from BBC Radio and others (likely to include someone from a social networking service and another person from publishing or broadcasting) discussing the impact of Social Media on broadcasting. The panel will be chaired by Andy Davy, Controller of Portfolio Management, BBC Future Media and Technology. This will be a free session - see the website for details.
From 14 - 17 December I'll be in Dubai where I'm giving a presentation at 
thenewmediaevent where there will be a two day conference with optional half day workshops taking place before and after. In addition to being in a great location, this one should be really interesting given the likelihood that the audience will be quite different in terms of people, organisations and experiences than the typical London or Northern European social media conference. Also speaking are Angel Gambino (Bebo), Mohamed Al Fatatry (founder of Muxlin), Phillipe Borremans and others.
Marta Z. Kagan, who describes herself as a "marketing/communications professional (and confessed start-up junkie) with a knack for using the Web and non-traditional marketing methods to build new brands—and breathe life into old ones" has put together a shared a smashing set of slides explaining social media.
Provocatively titled What the F**k is Social Media?, I nearly gave it a miss because I figured it was going to be the usual tired "change or die" sort of thing but it's not at all. Expect visually attractive slides, points concisely made, appropriate messages, use of stats that aren't too over-revved, etc. Sure, there's nothing really *new* here but it does strike me as one of the better social media introductions I've yet come across. Nice work.
I've uploaded my brief, scene setting presentation from the Press Gazette's Media Law Conference held today in London:
This morning I had the pleasure of interviewing Dominic Sparkes*, Managing Director of Tempero, one of the leading online content and community moderation providers. Other UK based moderation providers include ChatModerators and eModeration Ltd.
In the video, Dom provides insight into a rarely seen side of community moderation - what sorts of issues potential clients are worried about when they approach Tempero, the training provided to moderators, and things that site owners can do to make the lives of moderators easier:
*Disclaimer: Dom and Jasmine Malik, the co-founders of Tempero, were colleagues of mine at Granada (now ITV). I consider them, as well as several of their employees, to be friends. I've also had a professional relationship with Tempero as well as ChatModerators and am friends with several people at eModeration Ltd. It's a small world...
On Wednesday (25 June) I'll be at the Press Gazette Media Law conference in London, delivering what will be my last conference presentation as a BBC person before I leave (on Friday) to join Headshift.
I'm going to be speaking about the sort of risks - primarily, in this instance, legal risks - which arise when news and media organisations encourage or host audience discussion, content submissions and community.
You may be surprised: I've come up with at least eleven different legal issues that online community managers and social media providers need to be aware of.
I'm also going to discuss the different between moderation (policing) and hosting (facilitating), both of which, some solicitors believe, actually increase a website publisher's exposure to liability for libel.
I'll get my slides up on slideshare as soon as I've got better bandwidth than I'm currently getting using a nokia n95 as a bluetooth modem whilst on a train in a 3g wilderness somewhere south of Birmingham.
For a couple of weeks I've been dropping hints, via tweets and facebook updates of course, that I would soon be leaving the BBC. Now that everyone who really needs to know has been informed of my departure, I can finally announce here that next Friday (27 June) I'm leaving the BBC to join Headshift where I'll be leading an already established and expanding Social Media practice.
My friends will know, and probably more than a few readers of this blog will have picked up, that I have absolutely loved spending the past 6+ years throwing my heart and soul into helping people across the BBC understand and use blogs, RSS, social networking services and other forms of social media to reach out and engage with audiences.
It's been a huge pleasure working with so many talented people on projects, programmes and websites which help inform, educate and entertain millions of people everyday.
Leaving a job where I've had enormous freedom to learn and grow, teach and facilitate - effectively, the job I've always dreamed of having - takes a truly special opportunity and that is exactly what my new role at Headshift, Europe's leading social computing consultancy, is.
At Headshift, I'll be leading a team of experienced Social Media consultants who have already won and done great work with the BBC, Channel 4, Metro Newspapers, UKTV, a major UK publisher and others. I'll be focusing on extending a number of key client relationships, developing new client ideas for consumer-facing business applications of social computing, and increasing Headshift's visibility and presence.
I've also recently been named a Visiting Fellow within the Department of Journalism at City University, London and, although we're still ironing out the details, I hope to mix my full-time role at Headshift with the occasional lecture at City.
Whilst walking out the doors of the Broadcast Centre for the last time and knowing I'm leaving behind many friends will be an emotional moment, I'm also greatly excited to be joining the team at Headshift the following Monday (30 June) and getting my teeth into some new and interesting projects.
This blog will continue as usual and, I think, is likely to become much more interesting - there's going to be some great stuff ahead!
* The photo of the Nabaztag bunny currently warming my seat at Headshift's new office was taken by Jessica Wittebort, just one of the many interesting people I'm looking forward to working with.
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