PR Thoughts

Discovering Second Life

I made my first steps within Second Life this evening, trying to understand the rules of this new world... I've been chating with several people from the US, Germany and Japan, quite brievely I have to say, it's amazing how you meet people in this virtual world.

My first visit was for Podcast Island, below is a picture of me in front of the Casino, I'll share my next experimentation soon here.

Technorati Tags: second life

End of PR Week Forum

That's it, it' s the end of PR Week Forum in Wales today, I am using the last hours of the wifi network that has been set up here to do this post, it has been a great Forum, and my blog is the most appropriate channel (in my views...) to thanks PR Week for having inviting me to handle those 2 workshops on "The rise and rise of weblogs".

By the way, in this week issue, PR Week has a interesting article coming from the PR and New Media conference that they organized recently, with quotes from Peter Bale, editorial editor of the Times Online, explaining why communities like MSN and Yahoo! also becomes their competitors, such as The Guardian and other MSM - from his point of view.

Interesting also to know about the Times Online's Sounds podcast, containing interviews with bands and some of their tracks, sponsored by Sony Ericsson, and which had notched up 170 000 downloads since January...

Back to Paris now...

Technorati Tags: prweek

10 good reasons for Broadcaster to podcast

I spent few hours today with the management and marcom team of an international broadcasting company which invited me to have a discussion with them on podcasting/video podcasting.
As you can easily imagine, I love to do some evangelism on this topic and the discussion has been very exciting. Prior to get in the meeting, I've been thinking about 10 good reasons for broadcaster to enter the podcast world:

Podcasting is....

• A good way to give a second life to a huge amount of content that would directely becomes archives
• An opportunity to create and develop a new audience which might become a new community for the brand
• A way to prepare an evolution to "Television on Internet"
• Generating new traffic on the corporate web (podcasters and bloggers will link to the new available podcast)
• Providing a new form of content, for a younger audience
• Generating some rare content, available only and exclusively through the podcast
• Making some buzz to launch new TV shows: give pieces of exclusive previews through the podcast to give a flavour of it prior to the big launch
• A new source of revenu: you can have sponsors for your podcast (allocine is the first in France having been including ads in the show)
• Generate excitement for existing shows by producing "best of XYZ"
• An interesting way to reach niche audiences that would not normally be reachable for financial means

By the way, if you are interested in Web 2.0 topics, we have a great podcast in France produced by LCI (our CNN), called "Plein écran" (means full screen) that is definitely worth watching ! iTunes feed available here.

Launch your Talkcast

Have you heard about Talkcast ? "A live or recorded multi-person conversation, discussion group, talk show or podcast, led by a host with active participants and listeners" ?

If you're interested by this form of online voice discussion group, then you should have a look to this new service available since the 16th of june, TalkShoe.

It's an amazing way to host conversations and invite several people to join on a debate, which becomes available as podcast after the show ! The service is free for now and it seems like you can make money from it by hosting talk cast.

I created an account and I will definitely give it a try rather sooner than later, I have already an idea of what could be my first talk show....o) Stay tuned.

Technorati Tags: talkshoe

Conversation with Neville Hobson, co-producer of FIR

Both Neville and I are attending today the IAOC conference in Bruxelles (See Philippe's first post yesterday evening there), I've been taking this opportunity to do a podcast with the master himself, co-producer with Shel Holtz of the most famous marcom podcast: For Immediate Release - The Hobson & Holtz report.

We haven't prepared anything, we just went through it between my talk and Neville's one, and I publish it without any cut.

Neville and Shel have been doing their show live from the IAOC conference, using Skype to bring us Shel's voice in the room.

Click on the icon below to listen to the show, right click to save and download it.

Use this link to subscribe to PR Thoughts' podcast.

Technorati Tags: iaoc, neville hobson

Conversation on New Media

Today I've had an opportunity to spend some time with Christophe Labédan, founder of the Social Media Group (SMG), the first french experimentation in the field of vertical blogs or blogzine, name it like you want, following a first podcast we did together 9 months ago.

It's a very unformal conversation, we haven't prepared anything but just decided to  make an update of his Group and of the market in this show. Christophe is sharing with us his views on the evolution of this estonishing market, we are talking about the growth of the SMG, the business model, blogvertising and his first success stories.

Hope you'll enjoy it, and again, no preparation and no sound cut...;o)

Click on the icon below to listen to the show in Windows Media Player, right click to save and download it.

Length: 16.34

Weight: 7.3 Mb

Update: apparently some technical problems with either Typepad or Dewplayer, the speed of my voice is three time what it should be, impossible to have the link working on the podcast icone, so I am using the most basic way to share the MP3 file with you, get it from here directly. I'll double check in the afternoon to see if this is fixed...;o(

Update 2: unfortunately this is still not fixed, so I delete the dewplayer feature, simply click on the blue podcast icone to listen to the show...:-(

Peugeot is podcasting

Peugeot launched it's first podcast, announced as a weekly show, the first episode is about the exterior design of the new 207. A specific website has been designed to host the show (a videopodcast precisely) which is in french and of 1.50 min. length.  It seems to me that it's the first french car manufacturer to podcast.

Good luck Peugeot !

Technorati Tags: peugeot, peugeot207

Podcast your coffee with Nespresso

Have you listened to Nespresso's podcast ? Although I believe brands like Nespresso could find a good way to produce smart podcasts for  it's consumers, I have to admit that I am more than disappointed by this one...

Nothing to say regarding the design, I like the way the page is structured, the little icone associated with each podcast, the popup based tutorial if you don't know how to subscribe to it, but then... Sigh...;o(

First of all, I have not been able to subscribe to it through iTunes, it is just not working... I have had to click on each icone to listen to the related podcast and a "flat" voice is describing in about 20 second each receipt, no introduction, no music, no rhythm, just a voice that could have been produced by a computer, is it really a human voice ??

Second, I don't feel at any point the warm, flavored coffee atmosphere I would have expected to find there. No soul's living there...

Would I have had to produce such a show, below is the kind of show grid/program I would have proposed:

- "Live from..." various countries producing coffee around the world: Africa and Arabia( Yemen, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe), America (Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Jamaica...), India and Pacific... This show could be made of interviews/testimonials from "farmers" sharing their stories about the coffee they are producing each day, what makes a good coffee, how do they taste it, how do they feel it, with background noises in real situation to help the audience feel as if they were on site. A videopodcast would be the best of course in this case. This show might also be describing coffee cultures from these various countries, rituals, ceremonies, etc...

- "How do you like your Coffee": rather than having a voice without any soul, why not ask people in the street to share how they drink their coffee, if they have to drink only one coffee per day, what would be the conditions of this single coffee, time, space, environment, etc...

- "The best coffee of the world": invite people to share their best "coffee experience" on this show, let them tell their favorite story and experience with coffee: is it about taste, about a fantastic place that they know as providing a great coffee, etc...

- "Funny coffee stories from the world": why do italian people do such great coffee, where does this comes from ?

I would suggest to use one single jingle for each of these  shows to create a specific sound emotion and to have them on a weekly basis to create an online rendez-vous.

You know what ? I  believe in co-creation, let your customers give you the story to tell to other future customers, they are your best ambassadors. And yes,  I love coffee.

Just my 2 cents Nespresso. ;o)

Update 11th May: I gave a second try to the podcast feed via iTunes, 2 shows are available, but just a list of receipt... I keep the same feeling....


 

Conversation with Philippe Borremans, Head of PR at IBM Belgium

I have had the opportunity to do a podcast with Philippe Borremans, Head of PR at IBM Belgium and Luxembourg during Blogging4Business conference in London where both of us were panelist.
It's a live podcast, so sorry for the sound quality which is not perfect...

The amazing thing is that we have had quite the same discussion about one year ago, though it's interesting to see how the situation has been moving regarding new media at IBM.
Disclosure: IBM is neither a client nor a prospect...

By the way, I am glad to be back on PR Thoughts' weekly podcast with this show, it has been a long time since my last one and I definitely wanted to come back as I really fancy this channel of communication and more over, I definitely believe in it's huge potential in corporate communication.

Click on the icon below to listen to the show in Windows Media Player, right click to save and download it.

Technorati Tags: blogging4business, IBM, podcasting

A podcast to improve your english

Waow, that's a great idea, ESLPod is a podcast to improve your English by listening to native speakers talking about topics of interest to you. Now podcasting is also officially joining the elearning world !

Each ESL Podcast lasts 10-20 minutes, and has three parts:
1. An dialog or story read a bit slower than normal speech.
2. An explanation of some of the expressions and phrases used in Part 1.
3. A repetition of the dialog or story at a native rate of speech.

I love it ! Subscribe to this podcast.

Technorati Tags: podcasting

Loïc Le Meur does a podcast with french Ministor Nicolas Sarkozy

Famous blogger Loïc Le Meur, VP Exec Europe at Six Apart did a podcast interview with our french Minister Nicolas Sarkozy ! But not only that, he also offered him his latest book and an iPod for Christmas !
There is no stopping him...;o)

Technorati Tags: loiclemeur, Six Apart

Allocine launched it's podcasts

The french cinema portal allocine has launched it's podcast: you can now download the last trailers, exclusively by using iTunes. Good idea but not really a podcast in the original spirit, rather another channel of distribution.

Technorati Tags: allocine

Do you have questions for my panel ?

Few hours left prior to our event Les blogs 2.0, I am beginning to be really stressed, hope we didn't forget any details...

By the way, if you have any question you'd like me to ask to the panelist on my session, "Tracking /Listening to the online world", don't hesitate to leave me a comment, it will be on tuesday 2.30 pm and I'll be talking with:

• Mark Rogers, CEO, Market Sentinel, UK
• Salim Ismail, CEO, PubSub, USA
• David Sifry, CEO, Technorati, USA
• Yann Motte, VP Product Management,
• Yahoo! Europe, U.K.
• Mark Fletcher, Founder, Bloglines, USA

I am going to moblog a lot those two days, mainly do Vlog interviews of speakers and participants that I'll post here and/or probably on my podcast, I don't know yet what wil be the most convenient, so stay tuned !

Technorati Tags: lesblogs, lesblogs2, podcasting, vlog

Thomas Blard, journalist and podcaster

Thomas Blard is journalist on LCI channel and on Radio classique, also a big fan of podcasting with his own podcast. It seems to me that he is the only french journalist working for such famous mainstream media to run his own "micro media".Thomas gave me the "reason why" of his podcast. Second part of the interview is available here.

lun. 28.11.2005 14:04

Podcast interview with Fergus Burns, CEO of Nooked

In this Podcast Planet's show, my guest is Fergus Burns, CEO of Nooked, a web-based RSS marketing service, talking about how to use RSS to create and measure marketing campaigns, and on a wider scope, about the huge potential of this chanel of communication.

Click on the icon below to listen to the show in Windows Media Player, right click to save and download it.

You can also directly click on the "play" button below...

Length: 16,23 min.

Brands/names we've mentionned during the show: Technorati, Yahoo, MSN, Newsgator, FeedDemon, iPod, Nokia, Ericsson, Microsoft, Nielsen.

Jingle: Music 4 iPods, Blues Kitchen

Find all our shows on Podcast Planet.

Podcast interview with Mark Rogers, CEO of Market Sentinel

In this Podcast planet's show, my guest is Mark Rogers, CEO of Market Sentinel, expert of the online communication, talking about how to track and listen to the online world to protect a brand reputation.

Click on the icon below to listen to the show in Windows Media Player, right click to save and download it.

You can also directly click on the "play" button below...

Length: 13,48 min.

Links we've mentionned during the show: Google, Google Blog Search, Market Sentinel's survey "Blog search"

Find all our podcasts from Podcast Planet directly on our dedicated blog.

Technorati Tags: marketsentinel, podcasting, PodcastPlanet

Podcast #O2 - Conversation: Octavio Rojas, first spanish PR Blogger

In this show, I was happy to invite the first spanish PR blogger, Octavio Isaac Rojas Orduna, to share his thoughts with us on the impact and development of blogs, wikis, RSS in his life of PR pro. Octavio also published a book recently on this topic, so he was definitely the best spanish guy to answer those questions.

Click on the icon below to listen to the podcast with Windows Media Player...

... or click directly on the "play" button:

Podcast Planet launched !

Today I launched a new podcast, "Podcast Planet", a weekly show about participatory communications, blogs, wikis, RSS, and of course podcasting !

First guests are Jacques Froissant, CEO of Altaïde and Christophe Labedan, Founder of the Social Media Group. Jacques is the most well-known french HR blogger, and Christophe has launched the first blogzine portal in France. Both have very interesting comments and thoughts about their market, so don't hesitate to have a look there. You can automatically subscribe to the show by copy-pasting this link in iTunes or your iPodder.

We'll invite each week other CEOs, head of marketing, communicators to discuss new communications trends and strategy in a 10 minutes format. The show will be either in french or in english, depending of our guests, we hope it to be lively, so don't hesitate to leave us your comments.

Technorati Tags: podcasting, PodcastPlanet

PR Thought's podcast launched !

Today is the beginning of PR Thought's podcast, I am very excited about it and will be happy to meet you there on a regular basis.
Stay tuned !

You can listen to it by clicking here, this will open automatically Windows Media Player, copy paste this link in iTunes to subscribe to the podcast and automatically get new shows, or simply click on the play button below:

A white paper on podcasting

Podblaze issued a very interesting white paper on podcasting that you can download for free after registering on their website.
They are also providing a lot of informations on various tools, podcast software, forum and directories, they also began a blog.

Technorati Tags: podcasting