Poke is "peta" when Facebook goes Swedish
Facebook will soon release a version in Norwegian (via NRK beta). The social networking site has been translated by members to Norwegian and is currently in a voting stage where users are choosing the best options for different translations. Facebook is also soon to be released in Swedish, according to the Translation application on the site.
"Poke" is currently "peta" in Swedish and "prik" in Danish. In Norwegian it is still called "poke" although "pirk" and "dytt" are possible alternatives. Other suggestions for poke in Swedish are "puffa" and "knuffa" and users will decide which translation that will win.
1,207 members are currently registered as translators for Norwegian and 480 for Swedish.
Tags: facebook, social networks, facebook, sociala media. Ping.
"Poke" is currently "peta" in Swedish and "prik" in Danish. In Norwegian it is still called "poke" although "pirk" and "dytt" are possible alternatives. Other suggestions for poke in Swedish are "puffa" and "knuffa" and users will decide which translation that will win.
1,207 members are currently registered as translators for Norwegian and 480 for Swedish.
Tags: facebook, social networks, facebook, sociala media. Ping.
Blogs influence purchase behaviour
The PR agency Mahir PR has presented the results of a blog survey with 740 blog readers from 31 participating Swedish blogs. It is hard to objectively value the results since we don't know what types of blogs that participated. But among the findings they say that as many as 58% have bought a product after reading about it in a blog. Presentation here in Swedish.
As a comparison check out my BlogSweden 3 survey here (pdf) from January 2008. The two previous versions can be found in the right sidebar of this blog.
Tags: blog survey, bloggar. Ping.
As a comparison check out my BlogSweden 3 survey here (pdf) from January 2008. The two previous versions can be found in the right sidebar of this blog.
Tags: blog survey, bloggar. Ping.
Control and command PR backfires
Yesterday we could read that cartoon figure Dilbert is embracing web 2.0 by letting readers "create cartoon mashups, use widgets, rank comic strips, share favorite lists, subscribe to RSS feeds, and add commentary". If it works out it could be a great example of how to give up control of your message and put it in the hands of consumers, who are encouraged to become brand champions and spread the word about Dilbert.
The exact opposite must be artist James Taylor who held a concert in Stockholm earlier this week. Apparently the organisers demanded that the media that were present signed a contract that limited the use of their own photos. As a result, both Dagens Nyheter and Expressen refused to publish any text or photos about the concert at all. And as you might have guessed, you only need to go to Flickr to find a few photos from the concert.
It's quite ridiculous to try to limit the use of photos in this day and age, especially in a country with more than 100% mobile penetration. Instead, take a look at the way the Shins involved fans to create a video from 200 video clips from fans' mobile phones and cameras.
Tags: james taylor, the shins, dilbert, musik, foto. Ping.
The exact opposite must be artist James Taylor who held a concert in Stockholm earlier this week. Apparently the organisers demanded that the media that were present signed a contract that limited the use of their own photos. As a result, both Dagens Nyheter and Expressen refused to publish any text or photos about the concert at all. And as you might have guessed, you only need to go to Flickr to find a few photos from the concert.
It's quite ridiculous to try to limit the use of photos in this day and age, especially in a country with more than 100% mobile penetration. Instead, take a look at the way the Shins involved fans to create a video from 200 video clips from fans' mobile phones and cameras.
Tags: james taylor, the shins, dilbert, musik, foto. Ping.
"PR agencies are slow"
Last week I attended the Disruptive Media conference in Stockholm with speakers such as Neville Hobson and Kristofer Björkman. The conference covered inspiring topics from online video advertising to blog monitoring and strategies for social media. Fredrik Svensson from Starcom also held a stimulating presentation with five tips on how to succeed with social media campaigns:
1. Start to tell the story but let the consumer finish it.
2. Make the consumer your media channel.
3. Create ambassadors.
4. See social media sites as partners.
5. If possible, go where your customers are, don't force them to come to you.
During the day, the topic of blogger relations came up several times and although most agreed it is not rocket science, there were many examples of bad pitches. The most telling commment of the day came at the final panel debate about blogging. Roger Åberg, from the Feber blog network talked about how they get pitched with stories. He said that PR agencies are incredibly slow, when one of the Feber blogs blog about a story on Monday, the Swedish PR agency sends a translated press release on Wednesday. In my opinion, these PR agencies demonstrate at least two things:
1. They are not tuned in to the new media logic in which news are instantaneous. When everyone is a publisher, news can travel the globe within seconds. Online publishers in general and bloggers in particular don't "save" stories to the next day or wait to get the local version. Instead they pick up ideas from around the world and publish without delay.
2. They are not monitoring the blogs they pitch. If they did, they would see that the story is already out.
Several PR agencies were present at Disruptive Media and I know there are a lot of smart PR people in Sweden who get social media. But apparently, many agencies still have a lot to learn about blogger relations. And clients also need to realize that news are global and that there is an increasing pressure to get stories out in most markets at the same time. It is no longer, if it ever was, a good strategy to expect the local agency to get ink on a story that is already out in the prioritized markets. Geography based launch programmes are not as effective in a web 2.0 environment.
Tags: digital pr, public relations, blogger relations, pr, public relations. Ping.
1. Start to tell the story but let the consumer finish it.
2. Make the consumer your media channel.
3. Create ambassadors.
4. See social media sites as partners.
5. If possible, go where your customers are, don't force them to come to you.
During the day, the topic of blogger relations came up several times and although most agreed it is not rocket science, there were many examples of bad pitches. The most telling commment of the day came at the final panel debate about blogging. Roger Åberg, from the Feber blog network talked about how they get pitched with stories. He said that PR agencies are incredibly slow, when one of the Feber blogs blog about a story on Monday, the Swedish PR agency sends a translated press release on Wednesday. In my opinion, these PR agencies demonstrate at least two things:
1. They are not tuned in to the new media logic in which news are instantaneous. When everyone is a publisher, news can travel the globe within seconds. Online publishers in general and bloggers in particular don't "save" stories to the next day or wait to get the local version. Instead they pick up ideas from around the world and publish without delay.
2. They are not monitoring the blogs they pitch. If they did, they would see that the story is already out.
Several PR agencies were present at Disruptive Media and I know there are a lot of smart PR people in Sweden who get social media. But apparently, many agencies still have a lot to learn about blogger relations. And clients also need to realize that news are global and that there is an increasing pressure to get stories out in most markets at the same time. It is no longer, if it ever was, a good strategy to expect the local agency to get ink on a story that is already out in the prioritized markets. Geography based launch programmes are not as effective in a web 2.0 environment.
Tags: digital pr, public relations, blogger relations, pr, public relations. Ping.
Aftonbladet for sale at Lidl, again?
Interesting story on Resumé, which I don't quite get. It says that the two Swedish dailies Aftonbladet and Expressen have signed a deal with Lidl to sell their papers. I blogged a crisis story last year about Lidl being on the front page of Aftonbladet and the paper being on sale next to the check out. So apparently the papers have been sold in some stores.
Tags: lidl, lidl, aftonbladet. Ping.
Tags: lidl, lidl, aftonbladet. Ping.
Twitter could be testing ads in streams
TechCrunch writes that Twitter is testing advertising in the Twitter streams. Ads were spotted in some feeds during some service difficulties but they are not visible at the moment which could mean that they are in a testing phase.
In a poll on the TechCrunch site, a little less than half of the users don't want ads while the rest is split about even between "yes to ads" and "I would pay for ad-free version".
Tags: twitter, advertising, reklam, twitter. Ping.
In a poll on the TechCrunch site, a little less than half of the users don't want ads while the rest is split about even between "yes to ads" and "I would pay for ad-free version".
Tags: twitter, advertising, reklam, twitter. Ping.
Free photos for bloggers from Image Source
This is neat. Image Source, the world's leading independent producer of royalty-free stock photography, today launched PicApp, a platform that lets bloggers and online publishers get access to free photos for unlimited use. With a PicApp license, users are able to freely and legally use Image Source photos as often as they like. Images are streamed from the PicApp servers and are published with small ads that provide revenue to the content owners.
PicApp is still in beta.
Image details: Weblog Opens Up The World Of Maiko Or Young Geisha served by picapp.com
Tags: free photos, free images, photo, foto, gratis. Ping.
PicApp is still in beta.
Image details: Weblog Opens Up The World Of Maiko Or Young Geisha served by picapp.com
Tags: free photos, free images, photo, foto, gratis. Ping.
U.S. women say blogs are reliable source of advice
According to a survey from the online network BlogHer, as many as 24 percent of the (U.S.) women in the survey now watch less television because they are blogging instead.
Some other conclusions were:
- Approximately, 36.2 million women actively participate in the blogosphere every week with 15.1 publishing at least one post a week and 21.1 reading and commenting to blogs a week
- More than 40% of women surveyed consider blogs a reliable source of advice and information
- 40% of bloggers believe their biggest impact is through fostering relationships with like-minded individuals
- Half of women surveyed say blogs influence their purchase decisions
Tags: social media, blogher, blogs, kvinnor, bloggar. Ping.
Some other conclusions were:
- Approximately, 36.2 million women actively participate in the blogosphere every week with 15.1 publishing at least one post a week and 21.1 reading and commenting to blogs a week
- More than 40% of women surveyed consider blogs a reliable source of advice and information
- 40% of bloggers believe their biggest impact is through fostering relationships with like-minded individuals
- Half of women surveyed say blogs influence their purchase decisions
Tags: social media, blogher, blogs, kvinnor, bloggar. Ping.
Gawker sells Wonkette, and other stories
• CNN reports that the U.S. blog empire Gawker Media is about to sell three of its sites: music site Idolator, the "urban travel guide" Gridskipper, and the gossip site Wonkette.
"In an internal e-mail obtained by CNET News.com, [Nick] Denton explained the sale: "To be blunt: they each had their editorial successes; but someone else will have better luck selling the advertising than we did." The e-mail, and more, can be read here.
• Tom Foremski writes that the European software company Autonomy launches a new software "that can identify illegal content in corporate communications such as blogs, emails, any document, and phone recording, and even in video files." Foremski calls it "A Policeman Inside Your Computer And Inside Your Corporate Blog". [Via BMdigital on Twitter]
• According to a press release from SocialMedia Networks, the company today launched "the first social-enabled advertising network. The SocialMedia Advertising Network gives advertisers the ability to target users based upon their social network profile and behavior using applications as an advertising channel."
Tags: social media, gawker, wonkette, reklam, bloggar. Ping.
"In an internal e-mail obtained by CNET News.com, [Nick] Denton explained the sale: "To be blunt: they each had their editorial successes; but someone else will have better luck selling the advertising than we did." The e-mail, and more, can be read here.
• Tom Foremski writes that the European software company Autonomy launches a new software "that can identify illegal content in corporate communications such as blogs, emails, any document, and phone recording, and even in video files." Foremski calls it "A Policeman Inside Your Computer And Inside Your Corporate Blog". [Via BMdigital on Twitter]
• According to a press release from SocialMedia Networks, the company today launched "the first social-enabled advertising network. The SocialMedia Advertising Network gives advertisers the ability to target users based upon their social network profile and behavior using applications as an advertising channel."
Tags: social media, gawker, wonkette, reklam, bloggar. Ping.
Jaiku page hits top ten in Google in less than a month
I share my last name with 109 other people in Sweden, so it's not very common. And although my blog, which has a decent page rank, is published on the domain kullin.net, it is not ranked #1 in a Google search (it is #2 and has been for some time). The reason is probably that I have chosen not to name the blog after myself and instead call it Media Culpa. But what fascinated me when I made a vanity search on my name today was how fast my Jaiku page has climbed in the Google results. I have only been active on the micro blogging site Jaiku for less than a month and my page on Jaiku is already #6 on Google.se. In fact, the top 100 results are full of different pointers to my presence on Jaiku and it beats my Facebook and LinkedIn profiles by miles. The first Twitter reference clocks in just shy of #90.So what? Well, first of all it strikes me how much better Jaiku performs compared to Twitter, in SEO terms. The amateur analysis is that this is an effect of the way the URLs are designed. Google rates http://kullin.jaiku.com higher than http://www.twitter.com/kullin since the former is considered a sub-domain (please correct me if this is not the case). There are probably other reasons too, of course (could there be a language parameter involved since I write in Swedish on Jaiku and in English on Twitter?).
My second thought is that it once again shows how well different forms of social media/user generated content ranks in search engines. Previously we have talked a lot about blogs and wikis in the search results, but we obviously have to look closely also at micro blogs. Social media monitoring is already complex and it evolves quickly. So companies that want to monitor their brands constantly need to tweak their monitoring tools. If they are listening at all, that is.
Footnote: Google owns Jaiku.
Tags: social media monitoring, jaiku, seo, jaiku, google, twitter, mikrobloggar. Ping.
Young politicians in Malaysia required to blog
The Swedish journalism professor Kent Asp said a few months ago that blogs have had almost no effect on the local political opinion. Regardless of how close to the truth such a statement is, there is enough signs from the other side of the pond that we can be convinced that blogs and social media have great potential to impact political views and elections. In Malaysia, the ruling party seems confident that blogs will help the party get re-elected.
CNN reports:
"Abdul Rahman Dahlan, secretary general of the United Malays National Organization party's youth wing, said all those vying for national youth posts must have blogs to introduce themselves and their programs ahead of party elections in December."
"All candidates must have blogs," Abdul Rahman told The Associated Press. "If not, they are not qualified to be leaders."
Footnote: In Sweden, blogs about politics are among the top categories. On Bloggportalen for example, there are close to 4,000 blogs listed in that category which makes it the third most popular, and 1,053 are listed in the sub-category "politicians".
Tags: malaysia, politics, elections, malaysia, val, bloggar, politik. Ping.
CNN reports:
"Abdul Rahman Dahlan, secretary general of the United Malays National Organization party's youth wing, said all those vying for national youth posts must have blogs to introduce themselves and their programs ahead of party elections in December."
"All candidates must have blogs," Abdul Rahman told The Associated Press. "If not, they are not qualified to be leaders."
Footnote: In Sweden, blogs about politics are among the top categories. On Bloggportalen for example, there are close to 4,000 blogs listed in that category which makes it the third most popular, and 1,053 are listed in the sub-category "politicians".
Tags: malaysia, politics, elections, malaysia, val, bloggar, politik. Ping.
Official Scrabble Facebook application launched
Two guys in India developed an online version of Scrabble under the name Scrabulous, which has become incredibly popular. There are currently 629,000 daily users of the application on Facebook. The problem was that it did not have the proper authorization from the copyright holders (Hasbro and Mattel for the board game and Electronic Arts and RealNetworks for digital rights). After a period of lawsuit threats and talks about a deal, RealNetworks has now announced its own Scrabble application for Facebook: "Scrabble by Mattel". It will only be available to Facebook users outside the US and Canada, although the company will not monitor users' locations.
The new app has been online for a few weeks and has so far attracted 2,400 daily users. Although still in beta, it has also been critized for not working as well as Scrabulous.
Not surprisingly, many users are commenting on the application page about bugs and suggestions for improvements. Many are also outraged about the fact that users in North America don't have access to the new app.
RealNetworks should do a better job explaining that they don't have the rights to make that possible at the moment and they should also actively answer questions and monitor the debate. One could easily have anticipated that some negative feedback would appear during the initial phase and that the future success of the app depends on how you handle this feedback.
Via Marketing Pilgrim.
Tags: scrabble, facebook, scrabulous, scrabble, facebook, alfapet. Ping.
The new app has been online for a few weeks and has so far attracted 2,400 daily users. Although still in beta, it has also been critized for not working as well as Scrabulous.
Not surprisingly, many users are commenting on the application page about bugs and suggestions for improvements. Many are also outraged about the fact that users in North America don't have access to the new app.
RealNetworks should do a better job explaining that they don't have the rights to make that possible at the moment and they should also actively answer questions and monitor the debate. One could easily have anticipated that some negative feedback would appear during the initial phase and that the future success of the app depends on how you handle this feedback.
Via Marketing Pilgrim.
Tags: scrabble, facebook, scrabulous, scrabble, facebook, alfapet. Ping.
Schibsted takes community site to Spain
The Norwegian community site Nettby is quite a success. It has currently more than 650,000 members with 10,000 more added each week. According to Propaganda, the site has 50 million page views per day (that would mean that each member would visit almost 80 pages per day...?). Anyway, the site's owner Schibsted is planning to launch Nettby in Spain as a part of the site for the free daily 20 Minutos.
Tags: norway, schibsted, norge, schibsted, sociala medier. Ping.
Tags: norway, schibsted, norge, schibsted, sociala medier. Ping.
