Politcal Blogs: Media Tools

A recent study conducted by Hansard Society in UK revealed that there was a clear indication that the use of political blogs can be a media resource to increase the politicians’ transparency and accessibility.

Political bog can be an alternative vehicle to channel political communication. In the study conducted, the researches made use of eight political blogs as examples of these political blog instruments to promote political commitments. The researchers monitored these sample eight political blogs and assigned a blogging “jury” to examine the relevance of these political blogs in channeling political views.

Findings from the said study reveal that: political blogs could be significant tool to political engagement since they are an informal and inexpensive way to enter into political debate.

Another important point is political blogs does not put barriers between public and private spaces thereby allowing politicians to be themselves. No need to put up a public self separate and distinct from a private person. Low-cost blogging software allows easy construction and updating of political blogs thereby making it accessible to many. Political blogs appealed to the users because it allow visitors to engage in debates with the bloggers. Sort of, a forum to express their views. This feature makes the political blog very popular. On the other side of the coin though, blogs are easy to navigate but often their content is quite unappealing.

Turn Media Interviews Into Sales

Many people don't understand what soundbites are. They don't know how to create soundbites that sell. They don't know that it's not enough to be clever, entertaining or quippy. That might make TV and radio hosts happy, but it often won't bring in the kind of results you're looking for: to grow your business, sell more product, get new clients, more customers, or increase your fees.

You want to develop soundbites that speak to who you are, what you do and how well you do it. Soundbites are the essential messages that will create sales and recognition. They consist of anecdotes, analogies, stories, one-liners, and facts that you can speak in 15-30 seconds. They should be singly focused on what you want your audience to know. To turn media interviews into sales here are 3 things you can do.

1. Incorporate Your Past into Your Present Experience.

Camus says, *We are the sum of our choices.* We want to know how your childhood dreams have influenced the career you've chosen. Your past often has predictors to your future interests and life decisions. If you don't want to go back as far as childhood then go back in your professional career. Sarah Newton, The UK's Top Teen Coach, said that when she was a juvenile corrections officer what she heard from teenagers most was that they didn't feel heard, understood or respected. *The most important thing a parent can do is listen,* says Newton.

What *Queer Eye* Can Teach You About The Media

1. Show your passion.

The Queer Eye Boys are into what they do. You can tell. Their show has such a different feeling than the spin-off *Queer Eye for the Straight Girl* which lacks chemistry and authenticity. The synergy between the hosts and guests comes through when you connect to the host and audience through your passion. Things come alive. I hate that saying, *If you can't be sincere, fake it until you can.* That's such a cop out.

It's like all this new veneered furniture with one thin layer of real wood masking pressboard or
plywood. Yuk. Are you telling me you can't tell the difference between what is solid and what is fake? In *The Practician's Manual of Legerdemain* Ottawa Keyes says, *When it comes to the requirements for pleasing an audience, all the knowledge and instruction and apparatus in the world is worth less than one ounce of soul.* Ain't it so?

How To Write Foolproof Media Releases

Free publicity resulting from a media release sounds good, but how do you go about getting it? The first step is to write foolproof media releases.

Are you looking for inexpensive ways to promote yourself or your business? Well, read on about media releases, one of the most cost effective promotion vehicles available. Free publicity resulting from a media release sounds good, but how do you go about getting it? The first step is to write foolproof media releases.

Many people 'gasp' at the thought of committing the written word to the page. Don't be scared, just apply these quick and easy steps to write foolproof media releases! Let's get started! Always remember when writing your media release that editors will likely give you a '10 second' glance to see if the topic is newsworthy. Make sure you cover all the media release basic essentials to ensure your media release isn't 'tossed' before it gets even the 10-second once-over.

Do The Media Spread ComputeDo The Media Spread Computer Viruses?r Viruses?

Summary: Could the mass media hype about computer viruses actually make the problem worse?

If you believe what you hear in the media, there are an awful lot of viruses going around. No, I'm not talking about the make-you-sick kind of virus, though they get plenty of airtime, too. I'm talking about the kind of virus that enters via your internet connection rather than your nasal passages.

What the mainstream media often don't tell you--at least, in most radio and television newscasts and in the crucial headlines and opening paragraphs of newspaper articles-- is that many of these "viruses" are not viruses at all.

What Computer Viruses Really Are

The main reason the mainstream media always are in alarm over viruses is that they tend to call any malicious computer program a virus. In reality, there are at least eleven distinct types of malicious software, or malware, commonly affecting computers today. The most common of these are worms, Trojans, and spyware.

Santa Is Always The News

We all know Santa’s story by now. He was originally a bishop back in the day, and after he died he became known as Saint Nicholas, or Saint Nick for short. And even way back then, before Christmas became a major holiday, the anniversary of his death was a day to celebrate by giving out gifts. But most of us don’t know that Saint Nick actually had a bad rap for a while, and that is actually how he got all of the other names we know him by today.

During the time of great change in the Christian Church known as the Protestant Reformation, which occurred in the 1500s, the famous Martin Luther declared that all good Christians should stop celebrating saints. For the devout followers of Luther, that meant also stopping the celebration of Saint Nick, no matter how fun the gift giving had become.

But of course, not all Christians stopped celebrating Saint Nick, not even all of the Protestants. Instead of stopping the celebration, they crafted a plan to enjoy the Saint Nick holiday in secret. This is when Saint Nick became known in England as “Father Christmas”. In Germany, people referred to Santa as “Christmas Man”, and the Dutch created the name “Sinterklass.”

About this time, a large majority of Dutch settlers moved to New Amsterdam in America—what would later become New York—and brought their celebration of Sinterklass with him. Americans caught on to the idea, and tried to pronounce his name right. But instead, what came out was “Santa Claus.”

However, Santa Claus did not hit the big time until the author of “Sleepy Hollow,” Washington Irving, got wind of Santa Claus and promoted him the American press. This happened in the early 1800s, when Washington Irving wrote a story called the “A History of New York,” in which he went into great detail about a man called “Sinterklass.” This Saint Nick was fat and short, wore a funny costume, and would travel around on the Eve of Saint Nicolas on a horse.

The idea of jolly gift-giving man caught on in the American press. Another writer, the poet Clement Clark Moore, wrote a poem called “A Visit from St. Nicolas,” which is better known as, “The Night Before Christmas.” It was Moore who made Saint Nick a jolly old elf who flies around the night in a magical sleigh powered by eight flying reindeer. We all know the names of those reindeer, right? Well, Moore also included them in his poem.

Americans would get their best images of Santa Claus in the magazines of the late 1800s, when the cartoonist Thomas Nast put out his own visions of Saint Nick in Harper’s Weekly. For Nast, Santa was a bigger man with a big fat belly, who wore a red suit lined with fur and a big leather belt. Nast also started drawing images of Santa’s workshop in the North Pole, and Santa using a list to keep track of his kids who were naughty and nice.

Of course, these are all the images of Santa that we use today in the newspapers, in cartoons, and on TV. Or should we say, perhaps, images of Sinterklass?

How To Use A News Release

News releases, also called press releases, are the most important selling tool of publicity. The release must capture the editor's attention, be precise and easy to read.

A news release can go to just one newspaper or many publications at once. It can be a community notice about an organization's library sale or an international insight into inflation. The same standard form is used for every type of news, whether an executive promotion in the trade magazines, or a local event such as an author signing books at a neighborhood bookstore.

If you want your notice to get into a special edition of a publication, be aware of the deadlines. Sunday news editions generally have more readers than the daily editions. Find out when your release must be received at the editor's desk. Never mix publicity with advertising. If your newspaper features specific businesses in special industry supplements, you may be chosen because you advertise.

But otherwise, editors frown on any releases that merely imitate advertising and are not newsworthy. Don't embarrass yourself by sending anything that is not worthy of being printed in the publication as news. Not only will your release be thrown away, but you will destroy any chance you had for subsequent releases with that editor.

WRITING THE RELEASE

Keep the news release to one page. Type it clearly on white bond paper, double spaced, and never send it with typographical errors. Since the release might be published exactly as it is received, be sure the copy is professional and worthy of publication.

At the top left, put your name and address and the phone number you can be reached at during business hours. In full capital letters at the right, type, FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE or for release on or after a certain date.

Use a headline appropriate to the event or topic, and keep it short - just like newspaper headings. Capitalize the letters and underline the headline.

Start the copy with a dateline, which is the city and date. Then write the rest within a few paragraphs. Include the important information in the standard who, what, when and where. Use good English, but don't run on with unimportant adjectives or boring information. You can capitalize the first letters of important events such as Public Auction or the name of your new product.

If you have a release to send to many publications at the same time, have it printed by photo offset so the copy is clear and looks original.

Include a personal letter to the editor. Be cordial, but keep it short. If your product is convenient to mail, you may include a sample if the editor is amenable.

Watch the publications and clip the printed publicity yourself. Never ask the publication to send you a copy.

Buying The Best CD Media

Compact disc is a very familiar name in these days in this world of computer, MP3 player and video games. The small portable and round device, popularly known as CD, has made the world compressed and stored inside it. Though defining a compact disc in a common way you can say that it is an optical disc design to store digital data, it can be other way defined as the durable, efficient and affordable medium to store and transport data and information.

Compact disc was introduced in 1982 and was intended to provide a better and standard storing medium than its earlier form like floppy. Though it was earlier designed to store only music, it was later developed to get adaptable to hold any binary data. Now, they are commonly being stored to store computer software that includes games and multimedia applications. Even they have become most popular device to store music.

The convenience of storing and using has increased the widespread use of compact disc. They are quite compatible with computers, music system and MP3 players. Having a larger storage place adds to its advantages. Encompassing the features like cost, quality, safety and storing capacity you can find them as CDs are found as superior to any previous medium of storing music such as cassettes. It has got excellent audio output. They are less prone to damage and have got more storage capacity than cassettes.

There are many formats of Compact Discs available. CD-ROM or Compact Disc Read Only Memory is the form of CD that s only read but can not be written to by the computer. The CD-ROM drive in the computer is necessary to access data from the CD-ROM. It can contain computer programs, sounds, pictures, videos and other digital texts. CD-R or Compact Disc-Recordable is another form of Compact Disc that can be written to once only. CD-RW or Compact Disc Rewritable can be written to multiple times. Interactive CDs are used to audio, video and other data. Photo CDs can be used to store digitized pictures with sound. These days mini CDs are also available which are useful to store small amount of data.

Though Compact Discs are less susceptible to damages, proper care is essential to make them durable for long. Any damage can result in loss of a huge amount of data. You can go through the guidelines to keep your CDs away from scratches. Different varieties of CD cases are also available to store them.

You can find numerous brands of Compact Discs available in the market. They differ in their qualities and price. Some companies offer warranty period along with the compact disc while purchasing. Better to take one from any well known company. The price of the CDs depends on the storage capacity. It is advisable to go through the prints before making any kind of dealing. At times you will find there are duplicate CDs of some renowned companies, especially music Compact Discs and software CDs, sold at a low price. If you are using them, chances are there that you may end up causing damage to your computer. Be aware of the duplicate Compact Discs.

A compact disc is the cost effective way of storing all you data for long time. Take some precautions during and after purchasing it. While buying CDs there is one thing that you must take into account, i.e., their protection. More often than not, buyers tend to underestimate the importance of good CD wallet which can protect the expensive CDs you have bought. Remember, a CD wallet never cost you more than the expensive CDs, but it guarantees your CDs a longer life.

Persuasion And The Media

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." -Friedrich Nietzsche

How can you hope to find unbiased and truthful information if only five or six giant corporations controls the information you receive? If it's in the corporation's best interest to keep you from knowing something, and when I say 'best interest' I mean profitability, then there's no way you will receive information that will endanger that profitability.

Television is a huge part of the average American's life. According to the A.C. Nielsen Co., said average American watches more than 4 hours of television per day. That's twenty-eight hours a week. Two months out of each year. By the time you're 65, that's nine full years of television.

Fortunately for the advertisers and maybe unfortunately for us, the same thing that happens when we hear a story, happens when we watch TV. Our critical minds shut down. We absorb what they want us to hear with little resistance. In other words, we become passive and allow the message to sink in and carry us away. It sucks us in, alters our consciousness and that is why it is so absolutely powerful. Another reason is it uses so many of our senses, it engages us fully.

At this point, the news doesn't really care about informing us, they really are mostly about keeping us entertained and consuming. Could this be on purpose? Could they have taken a piece of wisdom from Lao-Tzu who sad, "People are difficult to govern because they have too much knowledge."

Recently I was in line at the grocery store and overheard a young woman talking a blue streak to her father. She was rehashing all the current gossip and referring to the celebrities by their first names, as if she knew them personally. This went on for a while until her father said, 'Do you know who the Secretary of State is?' A blank stare was all he got back.

Even stranger than the girl not knowing the answer was that she was completely unashamed at the fact that she didn't know. What does this illustrate? The media diverts our attention from what is truly important. We now know all there is to know about who's in rehab and sharks off the coast of Florida or whatever couple is divorcing keeping us in a dumbed-down, altered state so that we don't object very loudly.

Here's another tactic used to keep us from concentrating on what's really happening: terror. The terror alert level never drops below orange never allowing us to feel "safe", but in a constant state of fear. This also allows for a political slight of hand. Using 'terror' they were able to get the Patriot Act passed chiseling away at our civil liberties.

How can you use diversion in business to help with your sales? More importantly, how can these persuasion skills be used to protect ourselves when others are trying to persuade us?

Media Marketing

In the media world, image is everything. Today’s graphics hype and promotion gamble, it is hard running a magazine. Media can offer a cheaper ad to businesses who want to advertise in our magazine. However, this would reduce the quality.

On the other hand, to reduce the quality and increase quantity is a common trend, even though it does not increase the ad’s effectiveness. It just makes it easier to sell, because business owners have a hard time comparing an ad’s effectiveness against the number of issues printed, and the number of issues sent to the recycling center.

However, understanding the basics can mean the difference between success, and failure, in a small business.

Regional magazines are, arguably the most effective advertising medium today, as effective as television, sixty percent more effective than radio. Still, advertisers do not understand that the regional magazine does work because the quality is so high.

Lower the quality, and the effectiveness is lowered. Advertisers are distracted by distribution. The newspaper empires are built on the distribution myth.

Here is an excerpt from a conversation at a media meeting.

We had a funny situation happen recently. My sales person was at a call trying to educate a restaurant owner on the benefits of regional magazine sales. The restaurant owner kept repeating newspaper stats. One hundred thousand copies, over ten weeks, is one million people that see my ad.

Frustrated, the sales person kept trying to make this person see that only 300 000 people, including children, lived in the area. Where were the imaginary million people coming from? Then he tried to explain that most newspapers are returned each evening, and that it is important to produce these wasted newspapers, so the paper will have enough distribution incase something big happens.

Finally, he tried to explain that most people only read 5% of the newspaper. Not everyone who buys a newspaper will see his ad. In truth, this newspaper with a distribution of 100 000 would have the same number of viewers as our regional magazine. The sales person just shook his head and left the restaurant owner believing that one million people would see his ad.

This is an example of the old adage, ‘they will always do some things better than you.’ One of the biggest mistakes new entrepreneurs make is in thinking they have no competition. They forget the indirect competitors.

A trade magazine may be the only magazine in the area, but there are several newspapers in town, and one advertising newsletter. It is important to compared prices and distribution to your target audience, not spamming. There may be no direct competition for a trade magazine, but, there is competition for the advertisers’ dollar.

This is how a business owner needs to look at competition. Not as people doing the same thing they are, but people going after the same money. This matters when choosing the media type for advertising. If a newspaper spams 100 000 people, but only 50 read your ad, and a trade magazine mails to 1000 people, but everyone reads your ad, and people buy because you have reached your target market, then the magazine provided the better deal.

This means Wait a Minute needs to compete against the local cable company and radio stations. They are indirect competitors. To compete it is necessary to find ways to make the VALUE of our product better than their product.

This brought us to a problem. With cable, radio, and newspaper ads as our direct competitors, it was necessary to make sure the quality of our magazine, and the graphics, was top notch. We needed to meet the CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS. The customers will judge or product against those they expect from the competition.

Value and customer expectations are the two most important factors to consider when doing market research.

Example from a new concierge service’s marketing plan.

Do we go to the business section of town to do our research or find a plaza that does not mind us bothering their customers? Do we phone people? Or, do we send out a mailing?

A concierge service was one I thought about starting.

I started my business plan with ‘my’ idea about what I thought would work. Then I did market research, checking out the people I thought would be our clients. I found a marked difference in the service they wanted, and the price they wanted to pay. They wanted a guarantee that lunch would be served in 30 minutes.

We tried to explain that we were not a pizza delivery service where we had a couple dozen people with separate routes. The potential clients had a difficult time understanding our fee; they saw it as a tip and wondered why we wanted such a high tip. They wanted people to deliver food, pick up mail, take their laundry, and other services, at all times of the day and night. This was not a problem.

A problem rose when they decided we were to be on call 24/7. The idea that we would magically appear the moment they called intrigued them, and stressed me. After two months of research, I decided that a concierge service would not survive long in our area.

Brainstorming with other business owners, and learning more about marketing, will help you determine what media will serve your small business best.

The History Of Social Media Websites

Man has always been a social animal and hence, has always lived in complex social structures. The Internet added a new dimension to this aspect through the concept of social media websites.

How It All Started

As the Internet began to permeate into every home, teenagers found a new way of expression via the Internet. One way teens found of sharing common interests with other like-minded teenagers was through MySpace. This mode of expression had no immediate checks or rules clamped on by adults-- parents actually felt safer having their teenagers play on their computers at home instead of partying outside.

Teenagers as well as adults found MySpace to be exceptionally fast and viable way of communicating with one another. They could use Myspace --and now Facebook or Second Life-- to interact with one another, to share files with one another, and to coach one another into the fulfillment of their dreams.

The popularity of social networking websites grew with the need for the teenagers to have a space of their own, away from the prying eyes of their parents and other “responsible” adults. What resulted was an extremely healthy and effective way of communication that spread like wild fire across the globe gaining thousands, if not, millions of members every day.

Until a few years ago, even though millions of teenagers spent hours on MySpace, many adults did not even know of its existence. Unfortunately, as social media websites became more popular and widespread, predators began using them as a tool to target victims and more and more people became aware of the concept of social media websites, for good and bad.

As the fame of social media websites developed and gained prominence, their potential as money makers came to the forefront. Social media websites such as Digg, Second Life, Reddit, and Facebook have now become popular with adults and teenagers, and MySpace continues to be widely used.

The Power Of The Wellness Media Store

You can find a great deal of power in a wellness media store. What exactly is it? This is an ecommerce site on the Internet where you sell all kinds of items. Operating a wellness media store can generate a very steady passive income.

First, let's look at what a passive income really is for you. When you set up an event that will provide money without hardly work on your part is a passive income. You do all the initial work and then almost sit back and let the money come to you.

One powerful way to make a steady passive income is by operating an ecommerce wellness media store. You primary goal will be to sell electronic media such as videos, DVDs and electronic books that are wellness related. These are then delivered to the customers.

Do you realize thousands upon thousands of wellness media is available at your fingertips? You can find hundreds of electronic books that will give you resell rights or even be given away free for you to sell in your wellness media store.

Once you have set up your ecommerce store, you will be able to sit back and watch the money virtually roll in. You can have your wellness media store set up so that when a customer pays for an item, they will automatically go to a web page to download the product. Without any direct work on your part, the customer pays for the electronic product and they download the product. If you were asleep when they shopped, you still get your money and they still get their item. What could be easier than that?

Political Correctness And Brand Media

I think that political correctness goes out the window when trying to brand. To have sizzle as a brand you have to regardless of the rules of the day understand the importance of being distinctive. You may have to forget about the standards and ask what people implicitly look for when reading advertisements. Sure they want your mission statement and bio information. What attracts the public is often times the irrelevant.

The provocative and the imaginative are the teammates that reinvent you and your company. Regardless, of the business it is an inescapable fact that novel approach to brand media succeeds. Conventional though is fine, but a totally unconventional approach catches the publics imagination. Political Correctness is a way to declare that you are not interesting in a free thinking way. Many people realize that political correctness can be more than not insulting or hurting feeling. Kindness and consideration are always a keen focus worth having.

The problem happens when you can not think outside the box. The ultimate gauge of your power to engage will be your ability to be a straight thinker. Remember, there is a great deal of power given to those that contribute and gain visibility for communicating in an interesting and catchy way. The audience finds that those that transcend the narrow boundaries of everyday culture deliver some important identifiable and distinguishable benefit. Convention is the bookmark of a culture, but people prefer the full spectrum of thought. They identify unabashedly with the visionary, and it may be totally irrelevant if they practice political correctness.

Brand media is the way you move your vision int

social media

The owners of the social media site, ShoutLife, are all in their twenties. They have sought to create a fun environment for their thousands of guests. Connections are made and marketing takes place as members enjoy getting to know more and more ‘friends’.

If you stick around long enough you are likely to receive a bulletin alerting the minions to a group-wide event. Recently that event was a roller skating party in Michigan. The date and time was announced for a facility that likely housed around 200 individuals.

What about the individuals who live in Australia, or Maine for that matter? How many of these individuals would/could travel to Michigan for a roller skating party hosted by individuals they had never met?

There is a strong likelihood that the owners of ShoutLife wound up skating with some of their friends and family. Perhaps a few members who lived in the region showed up, but most of the visitors of this social media site did not attend.

The question is, “Did it make sense for the owners to post an event that would not likely draw a crowd?”

The answer is yes. You see, for most of us just the thought of trying to gather a global network of individuals to something as simple as a skating party will draw a smile. Not only will we smile, but we will remember enjoyable times with friends in our past. Not only will we remember, but we will come to associate a positive impression with the social network that promoted the idea.

News and Media

Social media is a perfect vehicle for connections between family and friends. While it has many marketing opportunities there is a more personal side to social media worth exploring.

For instance, families used to connect only through the occasional letter that may be passed around from one family member to another and photos of grandchildren were passed along in Christmas cards.

Today social media is having an impact on how scattered families can remain connected. Beyond the useful emails, the use of social media can allow families to access a number of methods to help keep others up-to-date on family news.

Slide Shows – this is a photo tool that can allow you to send highlights of a special event in the life of your family such as a birthday party, anniversary or family trip. In a matter of moments your family can gain access to a visually pleasing presentation of your most immediate adventures.