Marketing

Overheard - Influencing “The New Influencers”

Who says the blogosphere is nothing but a hall of mirrors?

“Peggy Rouse of whatis.com read the entire draft and provided me with valuable feedback, particularly some early advice that led me to completely restructure the order of the chapters. Her team also wrote the book’s glossary. Whatis.com was Wikipedia a decade before there was a Wikipedia. It is still an incredibly valuable source of technology knowledge.” Paul Gillin, The New Influencers / acknowledgements

From the Wall Street Journal review: Some two in five Internet users in the U.S. read blogs, according to a 2006 Pew survey, giving citizen-commentators the potential for more influence than ever.

How, then, should companies deal with the world of blogs, as well as podcasts, social-network sites such as Facebook and other “social media”?

That question is at the center of “The New Influencers,” written by former Computerworld editor Paul Gillin.

Overheard - Beware of widgets bearing gifts

“Widgets have become the unexpected buzzword of 2007; just a few weeks ago I discussed how they can be used for marketers to disseminate information.But I’m realizing that this buzz is eerily similar to the buzz that surrounded desktop applications in the late ’90s. Desktop applications and embedded applications became hot — right up until they became overused and exploited. Basically they morphed into a nasty little term called “spyware…” Cory Treffiletti, If Widgets Morph Into Spyware, Bad Things Could Happen