Media Bullseye

Welcome to another edition of CustomScoop's PR Pod Jots, our weekly rundown of all the best of the PR and marketing podosphere. It seems many of our favorites have returned from spring break refreshed and ready to discuss PR, social media, and all the latest online tools and trends.

I'm delighted to welcome John Cass back to the program this week, as he joined Jen Zingsheim and myself for our weekly Radio Roundtable discussion. This week, I wanted to talk to John about his series of posts discussing the "unniversary" of the Cluetrain Manifesto, as well as some other interesting issues that have copped up in the social media world this week.

Online shoe retailer Zappos and CEO Tony Hsieh have developed a dedicated following online, particularly on popular microblogging platform Twitter. Soren Jacobsen delves into the company's culture, ideas on transparency, and customer service to discover how they became an online force to be reckoned with.

Slowly but surely, companies and brands are understanding there is something profound happening in this new media world, and increasingly it's something they want to be a part of. But how can they know to whom to turn for advice on engagement? Is it their PR or marketing agency? Their technical group? Or is it someone else entirely?

Spike Lee has signed on to "direct" a film project consisting of footage taken from users cell phones. Lee is calling the project the "democratization of film". In reality, the Nokia-produced film is an attempt at using user-generated content to create a long-form advertisement while fostering a community based on brand loyalty.

Maybe Twitter wont be around to see 2010, yet many major brands have moved in to communicate with consumers and the world via Twitter: H&R Block (Finance), 10 Downing Street (The UK equivalent of US "White House"), Zappos (Online Retailer) and countless others like BBC News to Yahoo's Marketing Team and Amazon.com to the New York LaGuardia airport. Is this wasted energy by the PR/Marketing offices of H&R Block or even US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's social media team?

The guys from the Shill Podcast joined me on the Media Bullseye Radio Roundtable this week to discuss some of the big stories in the social media scene. We had a terrific discussion on everything from Comcast surging onto the social media scene, representing unsavory clients, and how to protect your personal brand during online attacks.

Sure, newspapers are allegedly a dying breed. But there is much to learn from traditional journalism that just might give your blog a boost. My favorite tip? Learn to edit yourself. Also in today's Jots: what would you give up to get something back? And how to get over blogophobia.

While yesterday's Jots asked the question "what is social media?", today's just might have an answer. PR blogger Brian Solis extensively explains how to best engage in social media, and why no one (and everyone) is an expert. Also: using video, controlling (or not) your personal brand, and 6 tips for using del.icio.us.

America Online announced today that it has made a deal to purchase social networking site Bebo for $850 million. Bebo, which generally comes in third to MySpace and Facebook in social network rankings but is rather popular in Europe, has 40 million members worldwide.