Media Culpa - Two Swedish eyes on media and public relations

28% of US internet users tag content

Pew Internet have just published yet another survey of internet usage. Turns out that tagging is becoming widely accepted. The survey (pdf) was performed in December 2006 and found that:

"28% of internet users have tagged or categorized content online such as photos, news stories or blog posts. On a typical day online, 7% of internet users say they tag or categorize online content."

Tags: tagging, Pew, taggar. Ping.

Ikea in bed with consumer generated media

Ingvar Kamprad's Ikea today kicked off a new campaign asking consumers to create online videos for the furniture giant. The campaign is a contest which offers $5,000 in cash to the user who creates the best online video on making a bed.

Ikea is using Shycast, a new kind of consumer-generated video network where "brands can reach out to receptive users and engage with them directly".

So far 4 entries are up on the site.

Tags: consumer generated content, Ikea, reklam, Ikea. Ping.

Survey of blog readers

Swedish marketing weekly Dagens Media has asked about 1,000 Swedes if and how they read blogs.

Respondents who read blogs:
* Daily: 11%
* Weekly: 14%
* Every second week: 4%
* Monthly: 41%
* Never: 31%

* 14% of the women read blogs daily, compared to 7% of the men

One caveat with the survey is that it is performed via market research institute Zapera's web panel. From the article it is not clear what that means, but according to Zapera Quickwise's web page, members sign up to this panel voluntarily and also get paid for participation. One could suspect that these individuals have a somewhat different profile than the average Swede.

And to be included in the panel you need to have both mobile phone and internet access. "Only" 80% of Swedes have access to the internet at home and a few more probably have access at work. So until more details about the respondents are published, I would be careful about attributing the findings to the average Swede.

[Update:] And another thing, I would not necessarily agree that Aftonbladet's blogs are the most popular in Sweden. Why? Because Aftonbladet is a blog platform and portal, and should as such be compared to other blog platforms like Blogg.se, Webblogg.se, Bloggagratis.se and others. Aftonbladet may still be on top, but it's not fair to compare their platform with individual blogs.

Tags: survey, blogs, bloggar. Ping.

Rojo missing from FeedBurner stats

At the bottom of the right column of this blog there is an icon that shows how many subscribers that are currently subscribing to my FeedBurner RSS feed. A while ago the number dropped to about 15-20 percent of what it used to be and then it went back up again. At the beginning of January the number was very close to 1,000, but two weeks ago it dropped again to about 200. The reason was that there is a problem with reporting Rojo subscribers. FeedBurner writes:

"Due to a bug with the way Rojo is reporting subscribers for some feeds, we're temporarily disabling the Rojo count in subscriber numbers. Rojo is aware of the issue and is working on it. Once the fix is in place and the numbers are accurate, we will resume including Rojo's subscriber count here."

I have had a hard time accepting that as many as 4 out of 5 subscribers to this feed are using Rojo and it will be interesting to see if the ratio has changed once Rojo is included in the statistics again.

Tags: Rojo, FeedBurner, RSS. Ping.

A-list blogger silenced?

Deleting a post that you regret, is not considered comme il faut in the blogosphere. Forrester's Charlene Li lists a blogger code of ethics which among other things states that deleting a post is not ok. Updating incorrect information is often seen as the right way to go. But when you are up against a top notch law firm even A-list bloggers like Robert Scoble compromise with their own principles (see Scoble's own Corporate Weblog Manifesto. 8) If you screw up, acknowledge it. Fast. And give us a plan for how you'll unscrew things. Then deliver on your promises.)

In a blog post from Jan 5, entitled "Don’t get ripped off by franchises", Scoble links to a post on his brother's blog where Ben Scoble wrote about how he had lost his share of a $30,000 deposit with Java Jo'z coffee franchise. But later on, the blog posts on all three Scoble brothers' blogs have disappeared without explanation.

A good background and links can be found here and here. [Via Common Sense PR]

Cache here.

Tags: ethics, blogging policy, bloggar, moral. Ping.

AP in Wii

Not for the multitasking challenged. Online Media Daily reports that users of Nintento Wii will be able to read news feeds from AP, the Associated Press, while playing games. The Wii News Channel is expected to go live on Saturday, enabling players to read about disasters and crimes from the real world while shooting their in-game enemies. What a blast.

Tags: Nintendo, Wii, spel, Wii. Ping.

Friday random ten

I haven't been blogging very much lately. Been busy at work and at home. And there is so much to blog about right now, but I have nothing to say. So instead, since it's Friday, why not go for a Friday Random Ten? Fire up your mp3-player and set it to random play. List the ten first songs it plays. And no cheating. Here is my list:

Kraftwerk - The man machine
Mogwai - Stanley Kubrick
Nuyorican Soul - The black gold of the sun
China Crisis - Tragedy and mystery
Paris - Outro
World Party - Hollywood
Miguel Migs - Brand new day
Fibes, Oh Fibes - 57 kr
Depeche Mode - Strangelove (Razormaid mix)
Neon Judgement - Chinese black

Tags: music, musik, fredagstia. Ping.

Quote of the day

The publishing house IDG launched a new site this morning, it24. To market the site a modified edition of the company's flagship publication Computer Sweden was handed out in Kista outside of Stockholm. Lars Dahmén, CEO of IDG said (my translation):

"We ran out of papers quickly when people realized that it wasn't Punkt SE that we waved with."

"Tidningarna gick åt snabbt när folk insåg att det inte var Punkt SE vi viftade med."

Footnote: Punkt SE is a free Swedish daily, owned by Aftonbladet's parent company Schibsted.

Tags: quotes, idg, it24. Ping.

Badly disguised photo reveals identity of football player

A scandal broke in Sweden today regarding a player in the Sweden national football team. Jnytt, a local news site in Jönköping, claims that the player took back an investment in a finance company just before it went bust. The player's identity is not revealed but the photo is badly disguised so anyone who would run a Google search on different players in the national team would soon find the original.

Here is the blurred photo, and here is the original.

Now you might wonder how I dare to disclose who the player is, but don't worry. TV4 has already written that the player is Erik Edman and published a statement from Edman in which he denies the allegations printed in Jnytt.

Funny though that although Edman himself has chosen to talk openly about the incident, Aftonbladet still has a blurred photo, more than two hours after his statement was issued.

UPDATE: Jnytt has now "un-blurred" the photo.

Tags: football, fotboll, erik edman. Ping.

Men dig newspaper blogs

Nielsen/NetRatings have presented some fascinating figures regarding newspaper blogs. Traffic to blogs on the top 10 newspaper web sites more than tripled in the past year and readers of newspaper blogs made up 13 percent of total traffic, up from 4 percent a year ago.

66 percent of the blog readers are men.

Beta Alfa also comments.

Tags: media blogs, journalism, journalistik, media. Ping.

Inc. 500 companies are using social media

Eric Mattson and Nora Barnes of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s Center for Marketing Research have published an interesting research project about the adoption and usage of social media by the Inc. 500, "an elite group of fast-growing private companies" in the US. In the report "The Hype is Real: Social Media Invades the Inc. 500", 121 companies responded to questions about six social media (blogging, podcasting, online video, social networking, wikis) and as many as 26% of respondents said that social media is "very important" to their business and marketing strategy.

42% of respondents claimed to be "very familiar" with social networking, followed by message/bulletin boards (38%), blogging (36%), online video (31%), podcasting (30%) and wikis (16%).

The percentage of companies that use social media is quite high in my opinion and I am certain that Swedish companies are far behind in the adoption of social media.

According to a recent calculation, only 8% of Fortune 500 companies are blogging, while 19% of the respondents in this survey use blogs.

Another comparison can be made with this survey of 805 mainly UK based companies (including agencies) performed by e-consultancy:

* 42% are planning to apply user-generated content (UGC) to their websites in the next 12 months; 23% are using it already.

* 35% are planning to use corporate blogs in the next 12 months; 17% are using them already.

* 33% are planning to use podcasting in the next 12 months; 18% using it already.

* 35% are planning to use videocasting in the next 12 month; 17% using it already.

Tags: research, blogs, social media, sociala media, podcasting. Ping.

JMW redesign - a sneak preview

Swedish PR agency JMW runs one of the better local PR blogs. The agency is currently redesigning its site and you can get a sneak preview of the new site here (sorry guys, but the link was clearly visible via Technorati so I had to look). The site is obviously not ready for launch yet, since it has content like this: "Jupiter comfortably sacrificed the botulisms, although two pawnbrokers drunkenly towed one quixoti subway, and the trailers sacrificed umpteen wart hogs."

Besides, isn't it strange that Technorati is able to pick up this link but fails to find these links to my blog from Boing Boing and Buzzmachine, two A-list blogs?

Tags: Technorati, pr. Ping.

Readers recycle old articles at Punkt SE

It's a challenge for mainstream media to involve readers in the news production with maintained quality. Remember six months ago when one of Metro's citizen journalists copied an article from Expressen and published it in Metro with his own byline? This week the competing free daily Punkt SE (online at Aftonbladet.se) publishes an article by a reader that is identical to an article published by the artist Ken Ring on Sourze in 2001. [Via Göken]

It's not extremely difficult to do a quick search and see if there is a risk of plagiarism. I just picked a random phrase and googled it, and found the original piece. The article had also been used in its entirety in an online forum in August 2006 and on Ken Ring's blog in November 2006.

Tags: plagiarism, citizen journalism, Sourze, punktse. Ping.

Swedish bloggers can be bought for a lottery ticket

A Swedish online retailer (evasunderklader.se) that sells sexy underwear has approached a number of bloggers with an offer to receive a lottery ticket (Triss) worth 3.55 USD in exchange for a mention and a link on their blog. Many bloggers have already swallowed the bait. A link search on Technorati this morning showed only three incoming links that are older than one week, but 23 links the last 7 days. A similar search on Knuff, a Swedish blog portal, gives us 23 incoming links the last week and no links before that, so the deal seems to be paying off.

Several bloggers are very transparent and post the email with the instructions from the sender, Lina Månsson. Other bloggers state that they have been encouraged to blog about the site, but leave out the part with the payment.

But there are bloggers who completely distort the reason behind the link, like Per Jodenius, a key figure in the 2006 Swedish electoral espionage affair:

"One of my buddies shopped there a while ago and was very pleased. He thought I should give a tip about this site on my blog. Since I am a nice pal I do as he wishes"

I can see that bloggers might be tempted to earn a quick buck by simply posting a link on their blog and as long as they are candid about the circumstances, there's no real problem, right? A little surprising is when people who are in an official position, like being a member of the local council, allow their blog to become a marketing channel for underwear. But that's their choice. What is more difficult to digest is when the payback part of the deal is not disclosed or when bloggers simply lie about the whole arrangement. I mean, how dumb are you if you don't realize that many other bloggers have gotten the same offer and that at least some of them will be telling the truth? The details will be known to everyone in no-time and if your story is completely different, you look pretty silly.

Maybe we shouldn't be surprised that bloggers can be bought for less than 4 dollars. If you aren't well known it probably doesn't even harm your reputation one bit, so why not go for the freebie? Personally, I would strongly recommend to be transparent about pitches like these. Either way, let me ask you this:

- do you really think that Lina Månsson exists, and if you knew that you have been lied to, would you still post the link?
- if you knew that the company behind the site, MTY, owns a store that sells products that, let's say, can be helpful in the bedroom, would you still post a link?

Internetbrus has also received the email and reveals that it was sent from marcinnowak.se, an SEO consultant. Marcin Nowak also happens to be the holder of the domain name evasunderklader.se.

Tags: blog relations, underwear, mutor, bloggar. Ping.

Washington Post wants ad collaboration with bloggers

Interesting initiative. Marketwatch writes that Washington Post hosted a blogger meetup earlier this week. The paper invited anybody who blogs about Washington D.C. and about 100 bloggers turned up.

"This was a chance for all sorts of local bloggers to hear from Post news executives about how the paper is not equipped to cover the micro-local events and issues that bloggers specialize in, and to explore ways in which the paper, its website and bloggers can collaborate, at least by referring readers to one another's work," Marc Fisher wrote.

Executives at the Post talked about sharing revenues with local bloggers from ads sold by the paper's sales staff.

Tags: washington post, DC, advertising, reklam, tidningar. Ping.

Positive response to Cisco's corporate blog

A quick follow up post to my last comment about Cisco's lawsuit against Apple for the use of the trademark iPhone. On a forum like a corporate blog you are bound to have many supporters, but critics are also known to come running. So when I read through the 50+ first comments on Cisco's blog I noticed that the supportive outnumbered the critics by about 5 to 1, which is very good. Here are a few good examples and especially note the ones calling out for a (blog) response from Steve Jobs:

"Excellent response. It's amazing what wonders blogging can do."

"This post reflects Cisco's openness in their communication. Very well explained. I just wished Apple showed some respect to Cisco's and its openhandedness."

"I am impressed by Cisco' transparency and willingness to communicate, especially so when these traits are exhibited by the senior management. Congratulations, Cisco. You're doing very well indeed."

"Excellent. Absolutely excellent, and that's coming from as big an Apple fan as you're likely to ever encounter. What Jobs and Company did was (and is) wrong."

"Very well stated. Apple, where are you? Oh, that's right, you guys don't blog..."

"Hats off to Cisco for your candor on the subject and willingness to have a dialog with comments open to all-comers. Steve Jobs? Care to chime in here?"

"I am an Apple fan indeed, but I must say I fully understand and support your point of view. Thank you for the excellent answer, it is time for Apple to think that way, too."

"I've never seen a suit explained as clearly as this before. Your openness is the reason that you will prevail in this suit. Thanks for posting this information for all of us to read! Great idea to blog it!"

The opinion battle is far from won for Cisco. The biggest criticism against the company is that they seem to want a piece of the action rather than just to sell or license the trademark. But they are off to a good start.

Tags: iPhone, Cisco, apple, corporate blogs, Apple, iPhone. Ping.

Corporate blog supports Cisco in iPhone lawsuit

Cisco yesterday announced that it has filed a lawsuit against Apple, "to prevent Apple from infringing upon and deliberately copying and using Cisco’s registered iPhone trademark." For communicators it is expecially interesting to check out how Cisco uses its corporate blog to support the official press release. In the blog, Mark Chandler, Cisco's SVP and General Counsel, is able to add pathos to the story, appealing to the emotions of the audience. Apple on the other hand does not have an official corporate blog to my knowledge which could be a disadvantage at this stage. Advantage Cisco.

[Via WSJ Law Blog.]

Tags: iPhone, Cisco, apple, corporate blogs, Apple, iPhone. Ping.

The world's oldest blogger has been dethroned

"It's a man's man's man's world", sang James Brown back in 1966, but when we look at the online world it is increasingly becoming a woman's world. In the US as much as 64 percent of online gamers are women, according to research by Nielsen Entertainment. In my own surveys (pdf) of the Swedish blogosphere I noticed that female bloggers are now in majority (albeit with a very slim margin) in Sweden and a recenty study of social networks (pdf) by Pew Internet revealed that among online teens, 58% of the girls had created profiles online, but only 51% of the boys. In the age group 15-17 the difference was even greater (70% to 57%).

With that in mind maybe it is just fair that Allan Lööf, who was previously the world's oldest blogger, has now been dethroned by a woman, 95-year old Maria Arelia from Spain. According to an article in Sweden's Aftonbladet, she got her blog as a gift from her grand children on her 95th birthday. Maria Arelia was born on Dec 23, 1911 and she writes on her blog that she has already been interviewed by radio and tv. [Hat tip to BetaAlfa 2.0]

Maybe we should settle this competition once and for all by giving a blog to Emiliano Mercado del Toro from Puerto Rico, currently the world's oldest living person (born August 21, 1891).

UPDATE: Sadly, Mr. del Toro has now passed away.

Tags: bloggers, Spain, Puerto Rico, bloggar, Spanien. Ping.

Social networks are selling like hot cakes

The first one to spot a trend here, wins his/her own island in Second Life (no, not really). Last week the publishing house Holtzbrinck bought the German social network StudiVZ. This morning it was announced that Swedish based broadcasting group MTG buys youth community Playahead. And today we can read on journalism.co.uk that Hearst Magazines Digital Media yesterday bought the teen social networking site eCrush with one million monthly unique visitors.

How long can LunarStorm, the #1 Swedish online community stay independent? I give them six months. What do you think?

Tags: social networks, media, lunarstorm, media. Ping.

MTG buys Sweden's second largest online community

The international entertainment-broadcasting group Modern Times Group (MTG) buys 90% of the Swedish youth community Playahead for SEK 102 million (11 million euro). "Playahead is Sweden´s second largest internet community, with over 530,000 members, and its Swedish operations generated more than 50% year on year revenue growth to SEK 18.2 (11.9) million for the nine months ended 30 September 2006." [...]

"Studies show that 12-24 year olds spend as much as a third of their media consuming time on the Internet, which is part of the reason why Internet advertising is forecast to deliver high double digit growth over the coming years in Scandinavia, and even higher levels of growth in the Eastern European markets. Scandinavia´s high internet and broadband penetration levels provide the perfect environment for the proliferation of user-generated video and audio content, as well as a full range of live chat, email, streaming and blogs," says a press release from MTG.

Tags: social networking, communities, Playahead, MTG. Ping.

Corporate blog fight

It is not unusual to see bloggers who quarrel over an issue, but more rarely does this happen on the corporate level. Now we can read what might possibly be the first Swedish corporate blog fight, between two companies in the SEO business, Carnaby Solutions and MediaAnalys. One writes on his personal blog, the other on the corporate blog. Accusations and suit threats are thrown around and it's a bit like watching a car crash in slow motion, it's very ugly but it is hard not to look. To the detriment of both companies, of course. Hire a PR agency, guys.

[Via BetaAlfa 2.0]

Tags: corporate blog, pr, seo, bloggar, seo. Ping.

"Yo, Saddam"

Martin Jönsson at Svenska Dagbladet links to the VizEds Blog's collection of how newspapers illustrated Saddam Hussein's execution. And just like Martin, I reacted to Philadelphia Daily News' headline "Yo, Saddam, say hi to Hitler".

Tags: Saddam Hussein, newspapers, media. Ping.

Blog-nicking - a new sport for MSM?

A story from Wall Street Journal's law blog is currently the third most read article on Realtid.se. How did they find it?

WSJ Law Blog, 3 Jan: The Longest Law-Firm Name Ever, Part II - a story about a law firm named after 10 partners.

Media Culpa, 4, Jan: "The longest law-firm name ever" My post about the law firm with the long name. Additional comment about how hard it must be for the firm to find a domain name that long.

Realtid.se, 5 Jan: Longest name on a law firm? (Längsta namnet på advokatbyrå?) Article about the law firm with the long name. Additional comment about how hard it must be for the firm to find a domain name that long.

Related: An article by Niklas Svensson, Politikerbloggen. [Via Erik Laakso.]

Tags: blawg, WSJ, media. Ping.

German social network sold for 85 million euro

StudiVZ, a large German online social network for students, has been sold to the publishing house Holtzbrinck for about 85 million Euros. Another media giant, Axel Springer, was involved in the bidding process but apparently Holtzbrinck already had a minority stake in StudiVZ and won the battle.

Holtzbrinck owns for example DIE ZEIT and Handelsblatt. [Via Paidcontent]

Tags: social networks, studivz, sociala media. Ping.

Veckans Affärer links to blogs

I haven't noticed until today that Ekonominyheterna, a co-operation between TV4 and Swedish business weekly Veckans Affärer is linking to a select number of current posts from the blogosphere, at least one of them being SBAB's corporate blog. We see MSM dipping their toes into the blogosphere more and more often, and it is not long ago that media as a policy almost never linked to sites outside their own site, in order to "keep the visitor" for as long as possible.

The longest law-firm name ever

Speaking of naming companies, WJS law blog calls Ziffren, Brittenham, Branca, Fischer, Gilbert-Lurie, Stiffelman, Cook, Johnson, Lande & Wolf the Longest Law-Firm Name Ever. Oh, and they don't have a web site, which I guess is logical since the maximum length of a domain name is 63 characters (in theory 255, but each "label" can only be 63, for all you nitpickers out there).

Only in Hollywood kids, only in Hollywood.

Tags: law, branding, namn. Ping.

Bits and bobs about PR and social media

Today I'm throwing you a smorgasbord of things to dig deeper into. Here goes:

Stathydro? Norskoil? Noroil?
In Norway there is a heated debate about the name of the new oil and gas giant that is the result of the mega merger between Norsk Hydro and Statoil. Branding experts claim that it will cost between 2.7 and 3.6 billion kroner to change name and that the brand Statoil is worth between 2.5 and 5 billion kroner.

Tech blogs in, conservative blogs out
Bloggers Blog compare the top 10 blogs at Technorati on Jan 1, 2006 and Jan 1. 2007. Via Kristine Lowe.

Busting myths about social media
PR agency Ketchum and the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Strategic Public Relations Center have produced a report called "Media Myths & Realities, 2006 Media Usage Survey". Among other things the survey deflates five myths about social media:
-Blogs dominate.
-Social networking sites are just for kids.
-Young adults don’t read the newspaper.
-Word of mouth cannot be managed.
-The company Web site is the best way to communicate.

Big ad, big love
The business man who paid 11,000 kronor (1,600 USD) for a large personal ad in Borås Tidning, has got replies from women from all over Sweden. Question is if any of them want to move to Borås... (More here in English).

Top 100 web 2.0 sites
Web 2.0 Magazine lists the top 100 web 2.0 sites in categories such as Video (#1 is YouTube), Music (last.fm), Chat (Meebo), Images & Photos (Flickr), Blogs (Blogger), Bookmarking (Digg), VOIP (Jajah) and a few others.

New free Swedish daily
Xtra Helsingborg is the name of Helsingborgs Dablad's free daily. It will become the second freesheet in the city when distribution starts in about a month. Metro is already present. Circulation: Monday-Friday, 20,000 copies. Via Researcher.

Tags: social media, web 2.0, newspapers, Statoil, branding, advertising, reklam, webb 2.0. Ping.

As a last resource, we can always hire an Information Officer

The city of Borås has not been able to find a new Marketing Manager to market the city as an attractive place, reports Göteborgs-Posten today. None of the candidates wanted to move to Borås!

And if you ever wondered which of Marketing Manager and Information Officer has the highest status, the person's future boss is quoted in the article saying that if they fail to recruit a Marketing Manager, they might consider lowering their requirements and hire an Information Officer instead.

Tags: PR, public relations, PR. Ping.

A web of lies

Running stories based on bloggers' accusations can backfire for mainstream media. That's the conclusion from the recent kerfuffle surrounding an alleged purchase of a "men's magazine". The whole thing started with a blog post by Åsa Hagelstedt where she states that she can reveal information from "a trusted source" that actor Lasse Berghagen buys porno magazines. But the blog post became more than an innocent remark when Swedish daily Aftonbladet decided to make a big story out of it. So when Berghagen strongly denied that the story was true, in a critical article in Aftonbladet, then Hagelstedt got cold feet. Her blog has now been completely deleted but the content can still be found via Google's cache for some time (quote can also be found at Sigge's blog).

Hagelstedt is not only a local politician in Stockholm and live-in partner to Lars Ohly (party leader of the Left Party). She is also Communications Manager at Swedish temperance organisation IOGT-NTO. She is listed as the main press contact at the site but according to an article in Dagens Media she has "gone underground" an not even her boss Sven-Olov Carlsson has been able to reach her. He will not confirm that she will get to keep her job.

But there's more. Bloggers have commented on the fact that Aftonbladet has deleted the article from Aftonbladet.se. Today Kalle Ljungkvist, Editor in Chief at Aftonbladet New Media, denies that Aftonbladet has deleted the article from its website.

- We haven't taken down the articles. We never published them online, he says.

While that may be technically true, the longer version of the articles were only in the paper edition, Aftonbladet did publish the story online in form of a telegram. And that telegram has been deleted. Follow this link and check the page title. In the telegram, Berghagen denied the accusations.

Lasse Berghagen nekar till anklagelserna.
- Jag undrar var de tidningarna är. Jag köper historiska tidningar om jag köper något, säger han till Aftonbladet.

I think this incident raises a number of interesting questions for bloggers:

- Do you trust your friends enough to put your career on the line?
- How can you be sure that second hand information is safe to pass on to others?
- If you are a public person, is that reason enough to be especially careful with the things you blog about?
- If you are caught with a serious mistake, wouldn't it be better to apologize and move on than to delete your blog and hide?

And some for media:

- Is passing on rumours more acceptable if it has been published on a blog first, than if not?
- Is it really a story if A accuses B of something, but B denies it?
- How do you make up for publishing incorrect information? If you publish a story online, should there not also be a mea culpa online, instead of just deleting the original article?

Tags: mea culpa, Aftonbladet, Berghagen. Ping.