In her fascinating book “The Watchman’s Rattle,” Rebecca Costa talks about a super meme known as “extreme economics.” For those unfamiliar with the concept of memes (rhythms with “seems”) they are units of cultural transmission or imitation and like real genes they compete for survival, some winning and others dying out. They also evolve with [...]
Read moreBrands Should Not Pay Bloggers
If bloggers want to make money with their blogs they should sell advertising – or charge readers for their content. But they should not expect brands to pay them for writing or producing content. This is an issue that has been around for years – and it never seems to go away. Yet it’s my [...]
Read moreDon’t Forget Blogging – Even Though Everyone Else Seems to Have
At times blogging seems so… yesterday (Not unlike those photographs of your high school prom when you were wearing a baby-blue tuxedo, a navy-blue cumber bun and a bow-tie the size of an airplane propeller). Wasn’t it yesterday that Technorati was tracking more than 133 million blogs – with thousands literally being created daily? Now [...]
Read moreWelcome to the “New” HighTalk
Dear Readers: Most importantly, thank you for your support over the last two years. I very much appreciate your time and your visits to my small nook on the Web. Since launching in January of 2009 (at the height of the economic turmoil in the U.S.), HighTalk has featured more than 300 posts, 1,400 comments, [...]
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Has Blogging Entered its Twilight?
The answer is no, absolutely not. But I’ll get back to that in a moment. The blogging is dead meme has been around for a few years (I first read about blogging’s demise at ReadWriteWeb in 2007). So it isn’t a surprise that the New York Times recently tackled the issue and declared: “Blogs were [...]
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Blogging is Now Part of Journalism
The news this morning that the Huffington Post has been sold to AOL for $315 million begs the question: Is there any difference between a news blog and an online news publication? I’d argue that few people can tell the difference anymore. In fact, the term “blog” may have run its course (with the exception [...]
Read moreWhy Blogging Needs to be a Habit
I have a confession. When I advise clients on content creation for social media channels, including blogs, I’m adamant about keeping editorial calendars. When you plan ahead, when you put processes in place, your content creation becomes routine. That’s how newspapers are able to put out brand-new editions each and every day. They have a [...]
Read moreDoes Crowd-Sourcing Work in the Long Term?
Is Wikipedia about to fall over like a domino? As Newsweek noted last week: “Thousand of volunteer editors [for Wikipedia], the loyal Wikipedians who actually write, fact-check, and update all of those articles, logged off – many for good. For the first time, more contributors appeared to be dropping out than joining up. Activity on [...]
Read moreIs Civility on the Decline in the U.S.?
Weber Shandwick today released a fascinating survey called: Civility in America. The survey is chock-filled with valuable information. I highly recommend clicking the link below to download the report – a quick and easy read at six pages (full disclosure: I work for Weber Shandwick). From the report (released in conjunction with Powell Tate and [...]
Read moreThe Demise of Corporate Blogging
No one talks much about corporate blogging anymore. Blogging is the overlooked social media channel – at least among corporations. Only 79 companies in the Fortune 500 regularly blog as of December, 2009, according to Fortune 500 Business Blogging Wiki. That’s less than 16 percent of the world’s largest companies. Compare that to Twitter. According [...]
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September 21, 2011


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