It’s official - a third of all blogs are actually Spam

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I have just read an interesting article on WebProNews reporting that the blogging platform Wordpress has announced it has to get rid of 30% of its blogs because they are splogs.

A quick definition of a splog: “A splog (spam blog) is a fake blog created solely to promote affiliated websites, with the intent of skewing search results and artificially boosting traffic. Some splogs are written like long-winded ads for the websites they promote; others have no original content, featuring either nonsense or content stolen from authentic websites.”

We have had our social media newsroom releases used on splogs before and unfortunately we immediately discount them. The splog which stole one of our stories recently didn’t even manage to link to the story very well, but to the un-trained eye they can look like genuine news blogs. I am sure there are companies out there who wouldn’t know any different and claim these posts as genuine online coverage but splogs are just a means of making money by stealing content and then using blatant advertising. 

Matt Mullenweg from Wordpress said that his company powers a whopping 2,523,000 blogs. WebProNews states that: “WordPress has had to delete more than 800,000 splogs” which equates to almost a third of all of its blogs.

I am not sure if this is representative across all of the blogging platforms as some have to be paid for and some don’t. I would hazard a guess that the paid for platforms have a lower percentage of splogs clogging up their systems - I can’t see these pirates wanting to actually pay for a splog.

Up and coming bands should benefit from social media

As part of my public relations degree, I have to put together a portfolio of work to be submitted in a couple of months. My sister’s boyfriend is in a band called ‘Billy the Kid’ and they are doing really well at the moment, they’ve just been signed by Oasis’ management ‘Ignition’. As they are just starting to get their feet in the door of success, they haven’t yet had any real public relations work done for the band. Therefore I got really excited at the thought of doing some work for them and started brainstorming some ideas. I really wanted to do a stunt of some sort; something different and exciting, but then I became stuck. What sort of stunt could I do that was unique and completely free? Celebrities such as Paris Hilton get caught drink driving (arguably a PR stunt) which excites the press, but surely it’s a bit too extreme to ask the lads in the band to risk their lives in order for some coverage. They might be eager to promote themselves but they’re not that desperate!

So this got me thinking, my target audience is people aged between 17-35, what sort of PR works best for them? I believe the answer lies mainly in social media.

They already have their own Myspace page where friends can listen to their songs and so on which is a start. Young people nowadays want to be able to talk to each other about their favourite bands, share in discussion and swap information about them which is why I think creating a blog would be really beneficial for them.

Technology such as ‘Technorati’ (a blog search engine) also makes it so much easier to find the blog you want to be part of. Other methods of social media I could use would be to create a bespoke YouTube channel for them and upload videos of the band and creating groups and profiles in the social networking sites such as Facebook and Bebo.

It will be interesting to see if the boys do gain anymore popularity (however small) after I take advantage of the huge audience these sites have to offer. This would again prove the potential the world of social media has to offer.

Some other cool up and coming bands from the North East are:

· The Cutters (indie)

· Twisted Wheel (indie)

· We Start Fires (punk/electro)

The fashion industry demands assistance from social media specialists

  Whilst scanning thorough my Feed Demon updates during my lunch break, I came across an article in Scottish newspaper The Herald. With my fork in one hand and mouse in the other I had been checking out what was happening on the ethical fashion front, as I had written my dissertation on Fair Trade fashion and like to keep abreast of what’s happening in the industry. The article was entitled ‘What will you be wearing this year?’ and hinted at the predicted trends for 2008. Whilst it was the ‘eco’ part that had drawn me to this piece, it was the mention of fashion blogging that caught my eye.

I am a huge fan of fashion blogs. (Being an ex-fashion student can you blame me?)The latest trends, accessories and celebrity styles are available at my fingertips without the £3.20 price tag and the content is up-dated every 30 minutes rather than every month. Shiny Media’s list of the top 100 fashion and lifestyle blogs has become my blogging bible. The number of fashion devoted blogs is increasing by the minute but after a couple of hours delving into the world of web2.0, I struggled to find any blogs by actual fashion or accessory brands. It seems that the majority of names in the business are missing out on this potential gem.

A blog, and several other facets of social media for that matter, could be hugely advantageous to a fashion label, regardless of how big or small. It unlocks opportunities that print just cannot compete with. Runways shows streamed live, 3-D tours of garments and bags through vlogs, new products available to view immediately and style notes to give consumers an insight into the personality of the brand.

I would certainly love to read a blog from a major label but I wait for one with baited breath.

Social media campaigns - convincing the technophobes…

It appears that the business community is starting to understand that social media has to be part of an effective public relations programme in 2008.

Consumers across the globe are now actively using the popular social networking sites such as Myspace, Bebo, Facebook and Youtube to contact their friends and share content in the form of interesting music and amusing videos. However,  these same people, often become confused as to how social media can then be implemented in a professional/business campaign.

I recently held a meeting with a client who was very interested in what Wolfstar do, and they were equally interested in the analysis we could provide but most importantly they were interested in how we could save them money.

As we continue to show people the power of social media, we find ourselves more and more explaining that the technology is pretty much irrelevant now as we (the social media specialists) deal with that and the truth is editorial content is actually the key.

However, although most of our clients have been enthused by this advice, I have also noticed some apprehension as a small number of business people still see social media as an emerging market - similar to that of the dot.com boom in the 90s, which I was unlucky enough to be a part of. At that time I worked in an international public relations agency in London and we watched aghast as our team increased by 50% in two years as the senior directors gladly took the extra funds being invested to publicise the latest website to be launched, all of which were promising to have more than 10 million customers each. At the time we even asked ourselves who is actually going to log onto these web pages but this was all lead by technology and in the end it failed to deliver because we the consumers weren’t interested in the various sites content or we just couldn’t find them.

Social media is very different as this is a fundamental shift in society. It’s true that technology has aided this shift but this is all about how people are now interacting.

We used to read a newspaper or more recently log on a website to get the latest news and information we required. Now we are sharing content between each other whether its amusing videos or useful tips on how to start a new business - people don’t have to type a URL in to find you anymore - if you use social media correctly and effectively, customers and opportunities will come to you and they will want to work with you because your content is what they were actually looking for.

I think it’s right for many people to assume that this is still an emerging market but with more than 70 Million blogs and 120,000 being created every day it’s certainly pretty well established too. In fact, on Monday blogs actually celebrated their 10th birthday. People have been blogging for a decade about everything from serious business topics through to what they cooked for dinner last night.

As public relations practitioners it’s now time for us to help show the technophobes in business that this isn’t about new technologies anymore this is entirely about good quality content and using it correctly.

Social media newsrooms - it’s time to stand up and be counted

Whilst trawling the Internet doing some research for a high profile consumer technology client - who shall remain nameless - I noticed that hardly any of the big consumer brands around the world have dedicated social media newsrooms to share their news content with journalists and bloggers.

A social media newsroom, enables rich media content such as podcasts, vlogs and social media news releases to be properly shared and signposted, making a company’s news stories more accessible.

To be honest, there are precious few examples to highlight but GM and Electrolux, are two which immediately spring to mind. Stuart recently made a few interesting comments about Electrolux’s on his blog.

Last week, PR Week dedicated an entire 24-page supplement to the importance of digital and social media with opinions from several people across our industry. They were all (roughly) providing a similar message, which was that PR companies, clients and marketers must all sit-up and take notice of the social media revolution or risk being left behind.

It’s true that a lot of brands do need to wake up to what’s happening in public relations, so I am disappointed to see just how many of them still don’t have an actual working social media newsroom.

OK, here comes a Homer Simpson ‘Doh’ moment, as amazingly we (Wolfstar) don’t have a fully interactive social media newsroom yet either. I can hear the phrases ‘cobbler’s children’ and ‘practice what you preach’ ringing in my ears already.

Hmm, sorry about that and you do have a point but the only response I can give to this is that we have been so busy advising and our clients with their content that we haven’t made our social media newsroom fully interactive - DOH! Don’t worry though it’s on its way - watch this space!

If brands and marketers really do want to differentiate themselves in 2008, they could indeed look into opening a social media newsroom at the very least, as this will mean more journalists and consumers alike will be able to share, comment and bookmark their all important news content.