Facebook rules, as I suspected

Last week, on this same day, I attended the Digital Family Reunion in Los Angeles. It had been a long time since I had attended a networking event. And I was thinking about why that was. Then I realized...who needs networking events when I have Facebook and LinkedIn? It was sort of weird walking around and seeing some of my Facebook friends in person (a few of which I didn't really know before I friended them). I saw Ben Mendelson, the president of the Interactive Television Alliance (ITA), virtual "friend."

"Ben," I said, "You look just like your Facebook picture. Good to see you in the flesh."

As we talked, he told me that a lot of people who don't really know him, like myself, have tried to friend him.

"I'm not accepting any new friends -- not unless they are in the ITA. I have almost reached my limit."

Apparently in Facebook, one can only have 5,000 friends and he's up to 4,347 as of today. But, like the real world, true networking extends beyond your friends to your friends' friends and he and I have 48 mutual friends. He was very gracious at the event, however, and it was good meet him but was it really necessary?

In fact, I'm not really sure that I got that much out of the event except heartburn and a headache while trying to park. I loved catching up with two of my old bosses but I'm not sure that will help me get new business. It seems that I'm not alone in my opinion.

The Wall Street Journal recently posted an article about the death of tech conferences. It was mainly talking about big conferences. Apple is going to stop exhibiting at MacWorld...Comdex died. It's sort of sad as I always loved going to big conference for clients. It was fun and exciting and I'm the kind of person who talks loud enough and fast enough to get the media's attention.

But what really made me laugh was Nick Wingfield's closing line (BTW, also a "friend" of mine from Facebook), "If the economy keeps getting worse, maybe even those get-togethers [the smaller ones] will eventually be replaced by people friending each other on Facebook."

And that was exactly what I was thinking the other night at the Digital Family Reunion!

A Traditionalist at Heart

As I had long suspected, traditional news sites dominate in page views, according to an article on MediaPost.com. The analysis is part of a broader study on news and political sites by Lauren Rich Fine, director of research for ContentNext Media--which also found that traditional properties still dominate online news, with the exception of a few breakthroughs like The Huffington Post and Slate.

What this means for PR is that continuing to pitch traditional outlets is still very relevant. Almost all print and broadcast news outlets have online presences so when you pitch it can result in a double hit. While pitching blogs can be hit or miss, pitching the traditional media is more consistent. Stuart Elliott is still an advertising columnist for the New York Times. I have been doing PR for 13 years and he's been there the whole time. I love it when that happens. Bloggers can come and go...as can the blogs they started but the Times has been around forever. There's even a font named after it. Can you say the same for a blog?

Blogging on and on

Welcome....Apparently you're no one without a blog these days. Especially if you're in public relations like myself. All the agencies have a blogs and many freelancers do as well. Some of these PR blogs even seem to be trying to disguise themselves as actual media. Well, I know the difference. It's sort of a shame when we're forced to blog to seem up-to-date. So, it that spirit, here is my blog. Since I don't really think that I have that much to offer that's new, I hope to aggregate all sorts of great stories (mostly about PR and marketing) that I see around the 'net and then comment on them. I'm not sure if even that is new but I hope to bring my own unique view to the stories I find.