A while back I wrote about Meosphere, a Utah-based social networking site that uses lists to build a picture/profile of users, to keep track of and to share their life experiences. One can also use these checklists as a to-do life list. For example, one list might ask you which international airports you’ve been through, once you’ve checked off the 5 or 10 airports you’ve been through you might realize that you’d like to visit more airports (I know that is a weird example, but it takes all kinds to make the world go ’round). The cool thing about Meosphere is that you use the list on the site as your checklist of sorts to track your progress and find other cool things you didn’t yet have on your life list.

Well, in the business world I believe it’s easy to come up with problems and criticisms, what really takes brain power is coming up with solutions. Eric Eliason, Meosphere’s founder and CEO, and his team have got that covered, they’re holding a contest to see who, if given $10,000, can come up with the most creative way to expand his or her meosphere (the plan has to be in 20 words or less). Interested? You can get more details about the contest and enter it here.

My Two Cents: If given $10,000 I’d rent a convertible and cruise Route 66 with my dad, taking in all the sites, eats and just the experience of this classic American hot rod icon.

According to Eliason, Meosphere relies on users’ life experiences through various (read: eventually thousands) of lists that can be commented on and shared. Eliason says, “Everyone loves a list,” how true that is. Eliason and Meosphere have just closed a second round of funding, predominantly from Utah angel investors.

In order to participate, users share experiences through lists. One of the goals of the site is to encourage users to “get offline and become immersed in the real world.” In essence, this is the life list of the Web 2.0 social networking movement.

My Two Cents: As much as I tend to cringe at yet another social networking site, this site really make sense. I almost see this as a step up from the blog, which is sort of Journal 2.0. I like the concept because it combines non-computer/indoor experiences with the Internet, I am curious to see if it actually has the power to encourage users to get out of the house or office and experience life and the world. I think if it can pick up the traction, it has potential to become a great site.

No one is exempt from change; this can be a great threat or strength to any organization. The challenge for the PR Pro is how to deal with change. The advantage depends on the situation; if, for example, you are trying to introduce a new way to travel (read: Segway), you may find some resistance to change, for obvious reasons–price point, tradition, feasibility. On the other hand, if you are introducing a new, less expensive type of gasoline, you will probably have the upper hand from a PR perspective.

The savvy–and probably successful–PR Pro will know how to leverage the message and strategy to use change to his or her advantage. Knowledge and familiarity of key publics, perspective, as well as a handle on history will probably help you most. As an example, when dealing with people, there are some things that just do not change. For one, disclosure and honesty are always good ways to garner support or understanding from key publics, everyone is very familiar with the Johnson & Johnson Tylenol crisis and you probably know why it was considered a landmark PR case study–if not, you might want to catch up.

Even if you’re the PR Director for Google right now, you can leverage your message correctly to use change to your advantage. Talk about how Google has been a catalyst for change and innovation, talk about what Google is doing to stay up with the trends and times. Bottom line: the good PR Pro will always look for ways to keep a good PR message out there. With the speed of information exchange at an all-time high, today it is better said: no news is bad news! You have to keep your publics informed or they’ll turn elsewhere for that info.

My Two Cents: Look at change as an opportunity to be creative, innovative. Look at it as a chance to shine, the more you do, the more successful you’ll be.

From Daily ‘Dog: “The new website, called Wallop, is bound to make a splash in the competitive pool of friend-collecting websites. Microsoft’s tagline for the site, which will offer a wide range of tools and features that will hopefully set it apart from similar pages, is ‘the exclusive social experience.’”

My Two Cents: I have seen a couple of articles mention Google and how it is playing catchup, well, I think it’s safe to say that Microsoft is playing the same game (read: Zune & Wallop). Hopefully for Bill Gates and company it isn’t a day late and a dolar short. We’ll see how Wallop fares and the Zune in November–which, by the way, it was announced this morning will be priced almost $1 more than the equivalent iPod.(Read the Reuters article here on CNN.com)

A number of people of have commented on using Digg. Read Greg Hartnett’s post and comments; Steve Rubel’s thoughts and responses; another post here and here.

My Two Cents: I recently had a good friend Digg a news release about a client. At first I felt this was a misuse of Digg, but after further thought, I think to Digg one’s own release is just a step beyond putting the Digg link on the release page. I mean, with so many news sources on the net, why not cut through the clutter and get the story in the communications channel? Where I see it being a problem is if the entire agency and client Diggs the article and creates a pseudo-popularity and I think crosses a line. What are your thoughts?

As a communicator, I really get a kick out of the new communications channels the Internet has provided, and podcasting is cool because it is tech-heavy, i.e., it requires a little bit of techknowledge in order to put it out there. The problem I have is this: How many people are going to use/listen to my podcast?

My gut tells me that tons of people know what a podcast is, thanks to Steve Jobs’ iPod. But I think, and my good friend Russ Page agrees, the curve for adoption from there drops off big time. Now ask people if they’ve listened to a podcast, probably a pretty good response, but then get into “Do you listen to the podcasts you subscribe to on a regular basis?”; “Do you know how to subscribe to a podcast?”; “Do you know how to create a podcast?” I base much of this off of my own experience, I listen to podcasts from time to time, I even subscribe to a handful, but because my work is thought intensive, I really can’t listen to the podcast during the day, and that doesn’t leave a lot of other time for me to listen to the podcast.

I think podcasting is a valuable tool, but it needs a little more education to speed up the adoption process. According to the Pew Institute, an April 2005 report stated that more than 22 million Americans own an Ipod or an mp3 player, of those, 29 percent have downloaded a podcast. that’s 6 million people. Definitely a lot, but the study doesn’t show repeat use, and can’t say for certain if the podcast was actually listened to–which as a communicator is very important. The research was also limited to those older than 18.

Here are some other interesting points:

• There are no differences between men and women owners of iPods/MP3 players
when it comes to podcasting. They are equally likely to have downloaded
podcasts.
• Nearly half of those who own iPods/MP3 players between the ages of 18-28 have
downloaded podcasts, compared to about 20% of the owners iPods/MP3 players
over age 29 who have done so.
• Somewhat surprisingly, there is no notable gap between those who have
broadband access and dial-up users when it comes to podcasting. Some 33% of
the owners of iPods/MP3 players who have broadband at home have downloaded
podcasts and 28% of those who have dial-up at home have done so. This is not a
statistically significant difference.

My Two Cents: I think it is still an evolving channel and given the adoption rate thus far, it may prove to be a quickly growing channel that is growing exponentially. At the very least, I think that a podcast can be a great additional resource, I would use a podcast to compliment a fact sheet or bio, it would add some audio that investors or journalists might be interested in listening to.
What do you think? Have you had success/failure with podcasting? Do you think it is a viable channel?

Let me say that as a PR person, Wikipedia is an important player in PR 2.0 and social media tactics, not only does it get your message, client or product in front of a lot of people in a very unbias location, but it is also a great SEO tool in the Web 2.0 realm.

Here are a couple of articles discussing the growing pains Wikipedia went through:

BW’s Heather Green’s post and CNET’s article

My Two Cents: I don’t think this is a bad thing. Granted it isn’t pleasant for Wikipedia or the parties that have been wronged, but we–players in the media industry–need to figure out how to use these developing media and I am hesitant to regulate the heck out of them, so I think this is an interesting point of discussion as long as some resolutions are made in the end and can be applied to the media industry.

What are your thoughts?

I think the problem with any new media channel is that we don’t quite know how to use it. Like a new born baby figuring out how to use its arms and legs, we know the channel is there and that it works, but it hasn’t been put to the test like many traditional media, i.e., regulated!

The other sad fact is that there are those in our industry who are dishonest–I know, I had a hard time believing it too when I found out. We definitely benefit from the nature of social media which relies on a very symmetrical, all-way communication model. If someone were to abuse a new media channel like Digg or Del.icio.us or YouTube, it is probably safe to say that there are enough of us are opinionated to say something and reverse or stop the abuse before it becomes a trend.

My Two Cents: the ease of use of new media channels does not remove the learning curve–in some cases, like YouTube, the novelty may serve to steepen the curve.

What do you think?