Research

(Side note: It was a beautiful summer in Seattle (and my consulting business has been exploding). That dual dynamic has meant that my interview rate has slowed a lot and not many of the interviews I actually did this summer have been put up here on the site. But the days are getting shorter, the rain has a hint of fall in it and it's time to get back on the horse.)

Public relations is one of the fields that will certainly be most affected by social media. Rather than working with a handful of media outlets, PR pros now must also deal with the millions of blogs, forums, social networks, online videos and more. For this podcast, I connected with Phil Gomes, one of the sharp minds at Edelman focusing on the changing face of media.

Phil was nice enough to talk about the social media release, who's tackling social media right, the state of research in the space and more.

With all the buzz and hype, we sometimes lose sight of the fact that social media is young. And due to that relative youth, both leading practitioners and researchers are still just starting to sink their teeth into the subject. This morning I was lucky enough to interview a Phd student from the University of Maryland's ebiquity Research Group who has been researching social media longer than most (i.e. 2 years!).

As a former marketing analyst and social media fanatic, I love trying to understand the flow of influence and traffic online. For my 96th podcast interview, I had the chance to talk with a leading expert on measuring influence, popularity and social media online - Flemming Madsen of Onalytica.

Flemming and I chatted about the challenges of and approaches for measuring online influence, what to watch out for when you measure online conversations, the next evolution and more.

From social media to consumer generated media to social networking, the development and nurturing of communities online around your company or cause is an incredibly important and innovative area of marketing and business today. For my 83rd podcast, I was fortunate to get to chat with Vanessa DiMauro of Leader Networks, who's been building online communities since before the Internet.

Everyday we all deal with a multitude of user interfaces on our computers, cell phones, TVs, PDAs and MP3 players. Some suck, some rock. Most are somewhere in between.

For my 71st podcast interview, I talked with Jared Spool of User Interface Engineering about why most user interfaces suck and how to make them better.

ocial networking is a huge trend online perhaps best examplified by Myspace, Facebook and LinkedIn. But buried in the buzz about those hot companies is the fascinating science of social network analysis.

Online identity is a hot subject these days. Whether you're thinking about your kid's myspace profile, your Second Life avatar, or "googling" a prospective employee, I'm sure it's on your mind.

On Friday, I tracked down Fred Stutzman of ClaimID to pick his brain about online identity and what his new company is all about.

Enjoy!

I love universities. Their focus on learning and new ideas gives them a wonderful energy.

For my 43rd podcast, I was lucky enough to connect with a marketing professor from the University of Massachusetts named Nora Barnes. Nora just completed a survey of some of the most successful bloggers on the Internet.

In the podcast, we chatted about her inspiration for the survey, her methodology, how the results surprised her and more.

Definitely worth a listen.

For my 28th podcast, I was happy to chat with Jen McClure of The Society for New Communications Research. Jen is a veteran of the PR world and the Society is a leading source of ideas and debate on the growth and tracking of social media. Check out their blog for some of the latest and greatest research from around the Internet.