Boomerang

We’ve got a new Wolfie among our Pack. Cohn & Wolfe has launched Green Wolfie, a blog devoted to sustainability trends and issues from a global perspective. There you’ll learn how companies and consumers are going Green and doing their part to save our natural resources. It will be authored by our worldwide roster of sustainability experts including Geoff Beattie and Annie Longsworth. 

The blog coincides with the latest findings from our 2008 ImagePower Green Brands Survey produced in partnership with Landor and Penn, Schoen & Berland. The research, presented at the Sustainable Brands 08 conference, indicates that two out of three Americans think the environment is in worse shape than it was five years ago, and that lower income consumers have greater concern for the direction of the environment than wealthier consumers. Despite economic considerations, however, consumers are still willing to pay more for green products. For more information on survey results, contact Annie Longsworth at annie_longsworth@cohnwolfe.com.   

While at the Sustainable Brand 08 conference, Cohn & Wolfe conducted several video interviews with business leaders who spoke about their sustainability best practices and activities. You can view these clips on the Cohn & Wolfe YouTube channel and on the Green Wolfie blog.   

In addition, we’ve included additional content on sustainability such as articles, research and case studies on the C&W Sustainability Practice page of our corporate website.

(IMAGE CREDIT: OCCULT OF PERSONALITY)

(Photograph by Chris Buck,  which appeared in New York Magazine in October 2006)

Ever see an unknown musician at a club and predict that he or she is “going to be huge” and it turned out you were 100 percent right?  When I saw Dave Grohl at the 9:30 Club back in 1989 – he was brutally abusing his drum set for Scream – I turned to my friend and said, “The band is average, but he’s one of the most entertaining drummers I’ve ever seen.”  A year or so later, Dave was in Nirvana.  Now, he’s “all that” for the Foos.   

In my 10-plus years in tech PR and journalism, I’ve had the chance to “call it” early and accurately on things like Napster going legit and using tiny TVs to sell airline tickets.  But only rarely have I had the chance to be “in on the ground floor” of a publication, be it online or in print, and accurately predict its future.  When Business 2.0, Brill’s Content, and The Industry Standard hit the scene, many of us (me included) thought they’d be around for a long time.  Oops.   

I got this one right though: I was one of the first people to make HuffingtonPost my primary stop for snarky political opinion and news.  I was initially led to the site just days after HuffPo went live by then radio commentator and current Senatorial candidate Al Franken, who mentioned on his Air America Radio show a post he did. I went, I read, I returned (daily). I told all my politically active friends: “This is the site we’ve been waiting for.”   

The formula for keeping me coming back every day is simple.  The content – from the minds of Christie Hefner, Harry Shearer, Hilary Rosen, Bill Press, and John Zogby even in the earliest days – was as plentiful as it was wonderful. It’s only gotten better; now the site boasts more than 1,800 bloggers (all of whom are unpaid) writing on an ever-expanding universe of topics.   

HuffPo last week celebrated its third year online and is now a force of nature (consistently top-ranked by both Technorati and Alexa), but back when I first discovered the site it was a tiny little island of ideology.  Most posts had just a handful of comments; nowadays, just about every post has hundreds (sometimes thousands) of comments.  The publication’s new tag line “The Internet Newspaper: News Blogs Video Community” is the perfect descriptor. There’s something there for just about everyone.  

Arianna Huffington, one of the most powerful people on the Internet (and in American political discourse) is seemingly everywhere, selling her new book The Right is Wrong, and spreading her particular, peculiar brand of independent political thinking.  To wit, Arianna will speak on May 19^th at the Commonwealth Club here in San Francisco and you can bet I’ll be there, with the same excitement I had when I first saw Dave Grohl play that little stage at 930 F Street.   

It never ceases to amaze me how much information we have at our fingertips via the web. No matter what the topic, people are constantly adding their insights, experiences and knowledge to online forums, blogs, and wikis. For me, blogs are a favorite online resource and I love to stumble upon those quintessential lists of top blogs on a specific topic, region or industry. Just in the past few months I’ve started to collect some very valuable blog lists so I thought I’d share them.

Most of the ultimate blog lists I’ve recently come across were developed by organizations and companies. However, some of them were compiled by single individuals who spent several backbreaking hours of research to put them together. These individuals deserve recognition for their hard work and I’d like to personally thank them. Bravo!

If you have an ultimate blog list that’s not included below, send it my way and I’ll add it to this list.

Ultimate Blog Lists

Top 100 Academic Blogs - Jessica Hupp,  CurrencyTrading.net

Top 150 Ad and Marketing Blogs – Ad Age

Top 100 Analyst Blogs – Technobabble

Top 100 Australian Blogs – Meg, Dipping into the Blog Pond

Top 100 Christian Blogs – Joe Carter, Evangelical Outpost

Top 100 Economics Blogs – Laura Milligan, CurrencyTrading.net

Top 100 Education Blogs – Online Education Database

Top 100 Gadget Blogs – GadgetVenue

Top 50 Graphic Design Blogs – David Airey

Top 100 Healthcare Blogs – eDrugSearch

Top 100 HR Bloggers – Laura Milligan

Top 100 Indian Blogs – BlogStreet India

Top 50 Japanese Blogs – Serkan Toto, Tokyotronic

Top 100 Lawyer Blogs – ABA Journal

Top 100 Liberal Democrat Blogs – Iain Dale, Iain Dale’s Diary

Top 100 Lifestyle Blogs – Kineda

Top 100 Luxury Blogs – International Listings

Top 100 Mommy Blogs – Mother’s Day Central

Top 100 Most Subscribed Blogs – BlogBridge

Top 100 Personal Finance Blogs – Ask the Advisor

Top 100 Political Blogs in Canada – Paul, Paulitics

Top 300 Political Blogs in the UK – Iain Dale, Iain Dale’s Diary

Top 100 Popular Blogs – Technorati

Top 50 Productivity Blogs – Leo Babauta, Zen Habits

Top 100 Productivity Blogs – CollegeDegree.com

Top 100 Sober Blogs – Unknown

Top 100 Social Media Blogs – VirtualHosting.com

Top 100 South African Blogs - The Mail & Guardian

Top 100+ Telecom industry Blogs - VoIP Now (NEW - added on 5/13/08)

Top 100 Travel Blogs – Laura Milligan

Top 100 User-Centers Blogs – Jessica Hupp, VirtualHosting.com

Top U.S. State Political Blogs – Chris Cillizza, Washington Post

Top 100 Wine Blogs – Alawine.com

I’m what most people would call an RSS junkie. It’s a bit similar to the more commonly used pseudonym “news/media junkie,” though my addiction is blogs. I love receiving the feeds of a really good blog – and a person’s RSS feeds can say as much about them as what’s on their iPod does. For example, here’s a bit about me (based on my RSS profile):

• Rolling Stone Rock and Roll Daily , Mashable = I love music and social media
• Webware = I’m always looking for new web applications to enhance my productivity and sociability
• Seth Godin’s Blog = I believe innovation is a key to success
• TechCrunch = I’m a fan of new, innovative tech companies
• The Bad Pitch Blog = I believe pitching the media is an art form
• Wired Blogs = I’m really into gadgets
• FabSugar, Perez Hilton, ValleyWag = I believe a bit of humor and pop culture awareness does a heart good

Moreover, I love reading really good blogs – big ideas in bite-size pieces. Blogs are usually what I turn to first when I want to get the gist of a thing and I don’t have the time to sort through the detailed specs.

So when it came to searching for a PR agency, where I could plant my feet and continue growing as a PR professional, the Cohn and Wolfe Boomerang blog provided me with a small peek into the agency’s culture and people. After reading a few posts, and checking out how the company approached PR and social media, I felt that C&W had assembled a smart team and a work environment that was a fit for me.

To say the least, I’m extremely excited to join Boomerang as a contributing writer! I look forward to bringing my experiences working with clients in the technology, healthcare, media and entertainment fields, as well as my love of music and social media, to my posts. More so, I look forward to dialoguing with the Boomerang community, discovering more good blogs, and expanding my RSS roll call.

What do your RSS feeds say about you?

Life is constricted to all types of boxes: Our apartments, our cubicles, even our computers entrap us. For many of us, traveling has always been the great escape from life’s restrictions. Lonely Planet, known for its insightful travel guidebooks, is a company that has been fostering the idea of exploring the world and soaking up its beauty and different cultures like a sponge. Recently, I came across LonelyPlanet.tv and knew I had found one of the best-kept secrets of online video content.  

LonelyPlanet.tv inspires the adventurer in all of us through video clips accumulated by daring, off-the-beaten-path travelers. Of course, nothing surpasses the actual experience of  eating an exotic piece of fruit from a street vendor in Peru, or dipping your feet into the sultry water of the Red Sea. But when the box constricts and responsibility calls, LonelyPlanet.tv allows you to visit a new land each day, virtually, without a passport. 

I love “Travel Tales,” a compilation of short documentaries created by amateur and seasoned travelers.. In less than 10 minutes, you can make a virtual pilgrimage to the Virgin Mary’s Wall of Wishes in Turkey and feel forgiven …well, virtually forgiven.  Another highlight is Bluelists, a collection of trekking recommendations.. It’s not your typical boring grocery list of tourist sights, but an anthology of inventive travel ideas for richer life experiences.  

So when the traveling bug starts to bite, soothe the itch with LonelyPlanet.tv—at least until you can go there yourself!

You finally find a few spare minutes to do that online research you’ve been putting off, and start entering search terms into the Google blog search engine. You review a few blog postings that provide some data but you don’t see anything special. All of a sudden, you stumble across a blog that looks as if it could be of real value. But little do you know it’s actually a fake blog being auto-generated by a machine.

Unfortunately, social media isn’t always social. There is a growing number of blogs being created each day that have nothing to do with transparent communications as we know it. Bogus blogs are being set up by unethical marketers who are using them to increase rankings in search engines and build Google juice for embedded links that point to other sites on the web. These spam blogs or “splogs” are popping up everywhere and are as counterfeit as the old “imposter” fragrances that littered discount retail shops and drug stores back in the 80’s.

Splogs work by searching real blogs with specific keywords and “scrape” or copy the genuine content for its own use. With as many as 7,000 splogs created each day, they are clogging search engine pipelines and causing confusion for everyone. While the problem is still quite rampant, some search vendors are doing what they can to eradicate splogs from search results. For example, Google has done a good job cleaning house and deleting splogs created on its Blogger platform. In fact, Google may be doing too good of a job, since it accidentally classified one of its own blogs as spam and deleted it earlier this year. However, the problem is still overwhelming for those of us who monitor blogs on a daily basis.

Splogs offer no value to readers who find them, and the worst part is most people can’t distinguish a splog from a real blog. The most frequently asked question I get from colleagues is “how can I assess the validity and credibility of a blog?” It’s a common pain point for PR and communication folks as they increasingly gauge online conversations that are tied to corporate reputation, brand recognition, products and services. Now not only do we have to analyze what’s being said, we have to determine if the author has enough credibility to believe what they’re saying, or if there’s even an author at the helm of the blog at all!

Here are some sure-fire tips to help you weed out splogs from real blogs next you smell an imposter.

1. Go to the source – You need to go directly to the blog to look for clues. You can’t make a true assessment by reading a blog post from your RSS reader.
2. Look for biographical information – Search the page for the “About Me” link to see if the blogger has disclosed personal information. While some bloggers prefer to remain anonymous, most will at least assume some kind of persona. The lack of a name or personal info is a dead giveaway. Sometimes the name of the blog alone can tip you off that it’s fake.
3. Personal experience or perspective – Many bloggers will point to news or other blog posts but will normally tell us why it was worthy of a post. If you don’t see any personal insights or commentary and it reads like a press release or news article, move on.
4. Examine the blogroll – Legitimate bloggers will go to the trouble of setting up a blogroll to show who they read and admire. Click on a few of the links to evaluate the bloggers on that list.

Growing up, the fatherly voices of Walter Cronkite, Ted Koppel and Peter Jennings mesmerized and warmed me. No matter how shocking, sad or maddening the news of the day was, their polished, trusted delivery made everything okay. It felt good to know they were on it: uncovering every detail and source, asking hard questions, and reporting the story fairly and accurately.

As the mass media landscape continues to shift, the good old days of a mass audience glued to national nightly newscasts have been replaced by a wild west of “Dot TV” channels — a handful of which now reach audiences that rival those of national news broadcasts.

But in the famous words of the great Webmaster himself, Spider-Man: “With great power also comes great responsibility.” These new dot TVs have some big shoes to fill. Journalism is a pillar of our free and democratic society, and I’m not convinced that all newcomers feel they are beholden to a shared code of ethics, and the same level of rigorous reporting of the Jennings era.

I know there are many who share my concern and excitement about the new rules of engagement that are emerging. My friend Tom Foremski has been tracking the topic on his blog for some time now. For instance, several months ago he suggested that media sites should provide a way for sources to comment back on posts – which came to life last week on Google News.

There have been other compelling experiments lately, such as the recent CNN-Citizen Tube presidential debate. Many media pundits commented that some of the most hard-hitting, relevant questions for presidential candidates came from citizens’ video questions. Our client Friction.tv has also recently formed partnerships with Channel Five and Al Jazeera. If an informed citizenry at large can collectively rise to the challenge, the honorable profession of journalism can prevail in a new form.

Many green advocates say it’s easy “go Green.” Try buying organic. Try bringing reusable bags to the grocery store instead of plastic. Try taking the bus. It’s simple to do! Or is it?

The No Impact Man blog paints a clear and vibrant picture of what it looks and feels like to go deeply Green. The blog describes Colin Beavan’s experience with a “no net environmental impact” lifestyle. He asks real and practical questions: “What would it be like to try to live a no impact lifestyle? Is it possible? Could it catch on? Is living this way more fun or less fun? More satisfying or less satisfying? Harder or easier? Is it worthwhile or senseless?”

Beavan’s “experiment” will go on for a year and includes the following: “no trash, no carbon emissions, no toxins in the water, no elevators, no subway, no products in packaging, no plastics, no air conditioning, no TV, no toilets…” Not an easy task for a New Yorker and his family!

Community leaders like Beavan catalyze experimentation, discussion and awareness about Green alternatives. We will surely learn a lot from Colin Beavan because he is making a huge jump – actually redesigning his lifestyle around Green.

What impresses me most about the blog is Beavan’s honesty. He doesn’t simplify anything and he is sincere in describing the challenges of being eco-focused. You’ll learn a lot about how easy or hard it is to integrate green ways into your life – and for any marketer, that’s invaluable!

The Beauty Brains blog puts the power of knowledge in the hands of consumers. Today’s consumers want to know how personal products affect their body, their healthy, and the environment. Gone are the days of simply buying into advertising messages. With the ability to look up anything on the net consumers just need to make a few clicks in order to learn more about products and their ingredients. The Beauty Brains blog is one place to do just that.

The Beauty Brains found a sweet spot at the intersection of science and beauty, providing unbiased information about personal care products. The blog is run by cosmetic chemists who love science and cosmetics and are not afraid to explain, from a scientific perspective, what a product actually does, how it does it, how it differs (if it does) from its competitors, and what the advertising behind the product means. Most importantly the bloggers explain how cosmetics are made, giving consumers a better idea of what they are using on their bodies.

As consumers continue tune into personal wellness, sites that model themselves after the Beauty Brains blog will be better positioned to build trust and become valuable resources. And the blog will be a hit with all those brainy beauties out there too!

Not all bloggers are created equal. With 71 million blogs published today, and the number growing by the minute, developing a way to prioritize bloggers into a hierarchy is an absolute necessity. So we’ve come up with three main categories of bloggers: hybrid, niche, and recreational. While they don’t all share the same level of patronage, influence, or attention, they all have unique value.

The Hybrid Blogger
At the top of the blogger hierarchy are what we call Hybrid bloggers. Typically, a Hybrid blogger is an A-list blogger who is a single-entity outlet. Reputable news reporters such as Tom Foremski and Om Malik define this category given their crossover from traditional media to blogging. Hybrids have created new models of online media and have established respectable online brands. Other Hybrid bloggers include Arianna Huffington, Robert Scoble, and Mike Arrington, since they have actually moved into more traditional media roles and blogging is how they spend the majority of their editorial energy. The important distinction here is that the personalities behind these blogs are what make them so successful. So whether it’s politics, technology, or venture capital, Hybrid bloggers have generated a loyal following based on their industry insight and knowledge.

The Niche Blogger
Niche bloggers are very different from hybrids in terms of character and identity. A Niche blog is not reliant upon a single author, but instead consists of content assembled from a variety of authors/sources with a focus on a particular theme, subject area, or organization. (I’d put Cohn & Wolfe’s blog, Boomerang, into this category.) I’m referring to blogs like TreeHugger, LifeHacker, Engadget, and LeftLaneNews – the collective blog content, not necessarily the individual bloggers, keeps us engaged and coming back for more. That’s not to say that the bloggers behind these sites are any less prolific than the Hybrids — it’s just that the spotlight shines brighter on the blogs they represent, rather than on their own personalities.

The Recreational Blogger
The last category is Recreational bloggers who, in general, are everyday people just wanting to share their stories and be heard. They are (long tail) consumers using free tools like Blogger, Vox, and Yahoo 360 to connect with others on the Web. While many are happy to just share their thoughts online, the reality is that Recreational bloggers don’t have tons of traffic. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have something powerful or important to say. I find the content created by Recreational bloggers to be most compelling given its raw, unmediated form. Content rules on these blogs, and outweighs both the site and the blogger in terms of influence.

By no means is this blogger hierarchy meant to categorize every blog out there; it’s really just a framework for understanding the blogosphere in general. The main point I want to get across is that all bloggers have a unique perspective and value, so while influence may be the most popular measure for determining a blogger’s worth, it shouldn’t be the only factor. As I see it, content and theme are just as important. Understanding how bloggers fit into the bigger scheme of things should be seen as a guiding force for creating highly successful connections with bloggers of all kinds.