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.

In today's Blog Jots, Mitch Joel has thoughts on the idea of citizen journalism, noting that citizen journalists have achieved a level of credibility whether people like it or not. Also in this round, more answers to John Cass' Cluetrain questions, and more proof that customer service is important to PR and marketing.

Yahoo has announced SearchScan, the product of a new partnership with McAfee, which will warn users of websites that present potential security risks. McAfee technology will automatically be incorporated into Yahoo searches, and any suspicious sites will flagged with a red letter warning.

We all love Twitter, but how often do we consider its usefulness for business purposes? Colin Carmichael of Social Media Group has a great post with four ways that Twitter can help your business. Also: Make your conference rock more, and some thoughts on the echo chamber.

Microsoft has announced that it will no longer pursue the acquisition of Yahoo after months of maneuvering and speculation. The company has withdrawn a bid to purchase the company at a price of $47 billion, or $33 dollars per share.

Welcome to another edition of CustomScoop's PR Pod Jots, our weekly rundown of all the best of the PR and marketing podosphere. It's another rather light week for podcasts this week, perhaps many of our favorites are still out on school spring break! We begin this week with a lesson on giving back, via the Engaging Brand.

My guests on the Roundtable this week are Jennifer Zingsheim, VP here at CustomScoop, and Aaron Strout. Aaron is the VP of New Media Mzinga, a white label community provider out of the Boston area. He recently appeared at Social Media Breakfast 7 in Boston, discussing social media and the hiring process, and he shares those thoughts here.

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.

Executives at eBay have a new headache today, thanks to new competition called Wigix, or the "Want it, Got it Exchange." The new service, just launched into public beta, aims to simplify the process of listing and searching for online auction items.