Media Bullseye

A reminder that next Tuesday, the Social Media Club Boston and PRSA Boston are putting on a great program on The Future of Journalism in a Social Media World.

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.

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 social networking has become an important element in business, and can be of great assistance to job seekers using professional sites like LinkedIn or Facebook. But what about in person networking? Also: Frustration over shiny new toy fixations and why Mommy blogs rule.

On the first day of the 2008 NewComm Forum, which took place last week in Santa Rosa, Calif., two back-to-back sessions provided some new insight into the goals communicators have for their news releases, what metrics and results they value, and some Web-minded ways in which they are trying to breathe new life into this 100-year-old tool. Mike Keliher has the details.

New Comm Forum, which took place last week in California, continues to be a topic of interest lately. Trevor Jonas notes that one major change from earlier conference is the abundance of liveblogging and Twittering that was going on. He also relates some interesting anecdotes from one of the livelier panel discussions. Also: New media as the standard, and Hannah Montana causes a PR stir.

As the New Communications Forum continues out in California, Geoff Livingston gives us a peek into one of the sessions. Shel Holtz presents on the importance of understanding employees as a big part of a company's brand. Also: how far is too far when dealing with online ethics; and is this the worst pitch ever?

Blogger, social media guru and all-around nice guy Chris Brogan joined the program this morning, in part to discuss the upcoming Podcamp Boston 3 but also to share some thoughts on some of the other stories coming out of the social media space this week. He joins CustomScoop CEO Chip Griffin and VP Jennifer Zingsheim on the show this week.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Jen McClure, executive director of the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR). Jen discusses the upcoming New Comm Forum being held in Santa Rosa, California on April 22 - 25, with information on registering, the top panels to attend, and what "newbies" can expect from the experience.

On TechCrunch recently, Duncan Riley aggregator FriendFeed to be "this year's Twitter." FriendFeed certainly has people talking, but has it recreated Twitter's phenomenal buzz? Not really. What about other micro-blogging platforms, will one of them emerge to take the "next Twitter" crown?