Media Bullseye

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.

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.

The challenge continues in this space to figure out just what social media is, how to use the new tools to make a profit, or whether social media is connecting or disconnecting us. Young professionals, a majority of whom are considered digital natives, are in a position to not only contribute to the conversation, but to use social media to its fullest degree. Most of us are just beginning our careers as social media is being defined.

Which social bookmarking site is best for your blog? Sometimes it might not always be the biggest or most popular, but the one that appeals the most to the audience you wish to target. Also: Is social media making us dumb? Balancing work and Twitter, a cool new Twitter tool and the social media glass ceiling.

Shift Communications principal Todd Defren joined Media Bullseye's Roundtable this week--and he was NOT discussing the social media release! Instead, we focused on Todd Andrlik's new blog for a good cause, social media careers, and the clash between liveblogging and sports.

When you sign on to the latest and greatest 2.0 tool, are you just riding the bandwagon craze? Chris Lynn reminds us that PR ought to be first about building relationships, and less about jumping on the latest bandwagon. Also: Steve Rubel predicts a decline in 2.0 jobs. Will flacks vs media ramp up? And Chinese spin control pre-Olympics 2008.

Does an outside agency have less emotionally invested in a companies' communications plan, giving them a fresher perspective? It's an interesting argument for going beyond internal communications teams. Also: Questionable numbers in a PR poll, and the tumultuous relationship between blogging and sports coverage.

When reaching out to bloggers, research is key. Susan Getgood argues that not enough agencies are doing their homework before conducting blogger outreach programs. Is the right audience better than a bigger audience? Also: DIY blog improvement, LinkedIn company profiles, and push vs. pull.

LinkedIn has launched 160,000 company and charity profiles as part of an effort to drive traffic and increase the professional network's value as research tool. Company data will largely be based on information pulled from existing LinkedIn member profiles, but Business Week is chipping in to help fill in the gaps.