Content summary: Gizmo today, not Skype; FIR listener survey update; blogger relations and how PR should pitch bloggers; blog commenting, engagement and Starwood Hotels new blog; Lee Hopkins reports; the .eu domain name controversy; Firefox Flicks grassroots marketing contest; listeners’ comments discussion (about ‘fractionalizing’ and community, RSS and email, wiki material on iPods); the music.

Show notes for April 17, 2006

Welcome to For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report, a 79-minute podcast recorded live from Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and Concord, California, USA.

Download the file here (MP3, 31.5MB), or sign up for the RSS feed to get it and future shows automatically. (For automatic synchronization with your iPod or other digital player, you’ll also need a podcatcher such as Juice, DopplerRadio, iTunes or Yahoo! Podcasts, or an RSS aggregator that supports podcasts such as FeedDemon).

Listen to this podcast now:

In This Edition:

Intro:

• 00:29 Neville introduces the show; what the show’s about; show notes
• 02:03 Today’s show recorded over Gizmo not Skype
• 04:10 FIR listener survey update

News and Commentary:

• 06:18 PR and blogger relations – some people think PR pitching is lame, but there is a best-practice way to go about it such as Shel’s project for ClickTV
• 18:42 Using blogs to build engagement with customers – Starwood Hotels launches TheLobby.com and misses the mark with commenting (in particular); Anil Dash suggests a staged commenting structure; some commenting changes on the blog today but what else should they do?
• 32:27 Andy Lark shouts out!
• 32:42 From Our Correspondent Down Under: Lee Hopkins – BlogJet as an offline blog tool*; Pepper and Rubel: now that they are PepperRubel PR, should I pick a fight with someone to ‘spice things up a bit’?; why crisis comms folk need to know about web2.0, or know someone who does (*Neville suggests Lee should also take a look at the new ecto for Windows)
• 44:18 Controversy surrounds the new .eu domain name registration system (and we’ve registered FIR)
• 50:44 The Firefox Flicks grassroots marketing contest ended last week – over 250 video ads submitted in a good example of fans’ brand passion in action

Listeners’ Comments Discussion:

• 54:10 Sallie Goetsch explains ‘fractionalizing’ and offers some views on community
• 56:29 Clarence Jones also talks about community and participation; and has a suggestion for Tom Keefe: get a USB flash drive
• 61:19 Michael Soulier says RSS won’t fix the email problem… yet
• 67:31 Matt O’Neill tells us about Tiddlywiki and asks: does anyone have real-life examples of using wiki material on iPods to extend the value of podcasts?

Outro:

• 70:48 Shel wraps the show; let us know your views about today’s discussions; how and where to send your comments; please take the FIR Listener Survey; where to find the show notes
• 73:47 Outro podsafe music from the Podsafe Music Network – Easy Groove by The Blue Mile

Links for the blogs, individuals, companies and organizations we discussed or mentioned in the show are posted to the FIR Show Links pages at The New PR Wiki. You can contribute – see the home page for info. If you have comments or questions about this show, or suggestions for our future shows, email us at fircomments@gmail.com, or call the Comment Line at +1 206 222 2803. You can email your comments, questions and suggestions as MP3 file attachments, if you wish (max. 3 minutes / 5Mb attachment, please!). We’ll be happy to see how we can include your audio contribution in a show.

So, until Thursday, April 20…

(Cross-posted from For Immediate Release, Shel’s and my podcast blog.)