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Micro Persuasion

Steve Rubel explores how the digital citizen is transforming marketing, media and public relations.

How Search Will Revolutionize Social NetworkingSeptember 5

Social networking is on fire. eMarketer predicts that in the US the category will reach 44.3% of Internet users by year's end. According to Google Insights, related searches are up 3,000% over the last four years. It has a ways to go before it's truly mainstream on a global level. (More than half of adults in 17 countries don't know what social networking is, according to Synovate.) Still the phenomenon is a sure thing, even though the individual winners and losers will surely shift.

What has me most excited though about social networking is a capability that isn't really in place yet in a powerful way - and that's search.

Much like the early days of the web, social networks have yet to fully exploit search. Recall that before Google came along 10 years ago web search was woeful at best and also un-monetized. Eventually that all changed. Even though Facebook's search is

The World's Clicks Don't Always Tell the TruthSeptember 4

The following is also my column in next week's AdAge...

The dirty little secret in the blogosphere is that bloggers get free books - and lots of them. Often they show up without anyone asking. Most of the ones on Web 2.0 or the Internet just aren't that good or are woefully outdated by the time they hit your Kindle.

Still, my Andy Rooney moment aside, there are two in this fall's crop has a stats geek like me really excited. They deserve a spot on your shelf - but with an important caveat.

The first is The Numerati by BusinessWeek reporter Stephen Baker. In the book Baker details how companies are hiring math geeks to dissect and make sense of mountains of data to spot everything from consumer patterns to future terrorists. An entire chapter is dedicated to discussing how savvy marketers are using data modeling to dig through reams of blog chatter in search of insights. Baker and his publisher, Houghton Mifflin, are even running a behavioral targeting campaign to underscore the value of studying ad clicks.

Click by Hitwise's Bill Tancer tackles the same theme but from a singular perspective - search data. Tancer,

How Globalization Handed One Blogger a Big ScoopSeptember 1

Philipp Lenssen has long been one of my favorite bloggers. He co-authors one of the best blogs on Google, which is also one of my obsessions. Today he scored a big scoop. Google's long awaited web browser is launching tomorrow. If you're reading this Tuesday or later, the browser is here.

So how did this happen? This is just my analysis. I haven't confirmed with Philipp (who I have known for years). But I suspect globalization is totally to blame.

You see, Philipp blogs out of Germany, where there was mail service today. So a comic book tease from Google that probably every big US tech blogger is going to receive tomorrow once the US Post Office re-opens, was in Philipp's mailbox today. Oops.

I would not be surprised if there are Google media embargoes that will lift tonight at midnight. (For an explanation for how these work read this great post.) In fact, Philipp's blog post has prompted Google to basica

Trends That Will Help Define the Future of PR and MarketingAugust 28

In June Edelman, my employer, and PRWeek held a two-day summit on the changing media landscape and its affect on business and education. More than 90 people participated. Recently we published a paper chock full of with actionable insights for businesses. You can download it here (PDF). Here's the conclusion I wrote.

Trends That Will Help Define the Future

The best way to think about new media, I have learned, is to look at the recent past and at the trends that are here now and seemingly have staying power. Apple CEO Steve Jobs once famously said "you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards." He’s right. With that in mind, there are three trends that are likely to shape things over the next four years.

The Attention Crash

Though the current global financial crisis grabs all the headlines, there's another storm quietly brewing - a crisis of attent

Lifestream LinksAugust 28

Over the last few months I have been blogging a lot less than I really would like to. I have so much I want to say here and often so little time to write thoughtful essays. There are weeks I get on blogging kick. Last week was one. Then there are times where it's nearly impossible to bang out quality posts with meetings, travel and client work.

That said, I am very active online every day and especially generous in sharing links on Twitter and Friendfeed - even when all I am toting is my iPhone. So if you're not subscribed to my lifestream feed, you might want switch to since that's where I am putting all the good stuff. Here's a sample from tonight ...

• Quarkbase is an interesting site that aims to tell you "everything about a web site." So far most of the data they offer is available elsewhere. However the presentation is amazing
• Twitter Grader offers rich data on Twitter users by handle and ranks them. Fun for egos everywhere
• ABC News' 20/20 this week looks at what people search for - porn and celebrities
• Facebook gets closer to Friendfeed with the addition of a "live feed" that auto-refreshes all of your friend