Hmmm, Facebook: a new kind of press release
PR people pay attention.
I don’t answer email anymore. Too much of it.
But there’s one thing that gets passed to my Nokia phone: Facebook wall messages.
Anyone around me knows that occassionally my phone goes “beep, beep.” That’s Facebook (I only pass wall messages onto my phone via SMS).
Today we were walking around Babies R Us in Colma (buying baby stuff) and my phone went “beep, beep.” It was a Facebook message from Frank Roche. If you’re on my Facebook profile you can see it.
It says “Cool new iPhone app: Mock Dock http://mockdock.com.”
I quickly turn to Patrick, say “try this out.” He tried it out and says “it’s cool.” I took a picture of Patrick using it and it, indeed, is cool. It’ll be the first thing I put on my iPhone when I get my own.
It’s a Web page that adds a ton of cool Web apps to your iPhone.
And now we have a new way for PR people to let me know about their apps. Write it on the wall please. Facebook: the new press release.
Oh, and you now know how to get my phone to go “beep, beep” too.
UPDATE: It’s 10:16 p.m., my phone just beeped so I headed over to Facebook to see what was just posted. Well, Otto Radke just posted on my Facebook wall: “if you liked mockdock.com checkout mojits.com. I prefer that over mockdock.com.”
I’m already starting to be trained like a pavlovian dog. Beep beep brings good stuff. Mojits rocks.
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July 8th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
Interesting. So in giving people easy access to Facebook walls, iPhone are starting to make e-mail obsolete (at least, the public PR part of e-mail). This often happens in the evolution of media - unintended consequences, in which the parts add up to more than the whole… http://paullevinson.blogspot.com/2007/07/iphone-boosts-literacy.html
July 8th, 2007 at 9:35 pm
Do you mean *NO* email, or just none with PR people?
If none at all, that would certainly make for an interesting Plaxo update! :)
July 8th, 2007 at 9:43 pm
Facebook evangelist? ;-)
I just don’t see “the wall” being a replacement for e-mail. It can’t scale.
July 8th, 2007 at 9:48 pm
Jeremy: I read all my email. I just rarely answer it anymore. The flow is too high.
July 8th, 2007 at 9:49 pm
Dewey: I evangelize a bunch of different technologies. Facebook certainly is hot on my radar screen right now.
July 8th, 2007 at 9:50 pm
At least that bunch doesn’t include solely Microsoft ;-)
Okay… that’s enough comedy from me for the night…
July 8th, 2007 at 9:55 pm
Heheh. What’s funny is that we’re now talking about products as we walk around baby stores!
July 8th, 2007 at 10:34 pm
Robert,
It great to see you are joining the rest of us declaring email bankruptcy. Mark Harrisons short comments http://markharrison.wordpress.com/2007/07/06/outlook-express-youre-fired/
Seem to be gathering pace on the Facebook group started a few weeks ago as well
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2468467202
To take an old campaign line from the Conservatives
“Email isnt working”
Thanks.
July 9th, 2007 at 10:40 am
[...] Hmmm, Facebook: a new kind of press release « Scobleizer For now. But, what to do when mobiles get as bunged-up with incoming as e-mail? [...]
July 9th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
iPhone App Manager FTW! Try this Scoble: http://iphoneappmanager.com/ You wont be disappointed.
July 10th, 2007 at 11:05 am
Robert Scoble Asks, “Is Facebook the New Press Re
Robert Scoble recently asked whether or not Facebook may represent a new kind of press release.
Let me answer this for you.
No. Facebook is not the next template for press releases, no more than Pownce, Twitter, and Jaiku collectively represent…
July 10th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
Robert, thanks very much for trying out Mock Dock and giving it a nod. Especially cool that you and Patrick tried it out in Babies R Us. You have boundless energy.
Just a quick update: As a result of the traffic your story generated, Mock Dock (http://mockdock.com)has thousands of registered users…and that number is going up by several hundred per hour. Plus, Charlie Chambers, the developer, is implementing improvements on the fly, so it’s better today than yesterday. That will go on all week. It’s a collaborative effort.
Thanks again. P.S. No PR guy here, by the way. Charlie is a friend of mine. Just thought it was a cool idea and fun to get the word out. I appreciate that you looked. Rock on, man!
July 18th, 2007 at 9:53 am
Robert, I guess you have enough business to NOT read email. Sounds nice. If you are not careful, one day, people will realize that since ‘the flow is too high’ they will stop trying to communicate with you. Saying that you get too much email (I’m asuming you are not talking about spam) that you can’t (won’t) read sounds like you are a snob and can care less about others. I understand how technology is changing and yes, there may major shifts in how we communicate. But by publicly stating that you just don’t read it sounds kinda bad. Sorry , thats just my opinion.
July 18th, 2007 at 10:17 am
Paul: I read all my email. I don’t have time to answer it all, though. I’m in a weird situation, have tens of thousands of people here every day. It generates a LOT of email.
July 18th, 2007 at 2:23 pm
Paul,
Don Knuth publicly announced that he’s stopped reading email back on January 1st 1990, and it didn’t seem to do him any harm.
http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/email.html
or, if you prefer:
`I don’t even have an e-mail address. I have reached an age where my main purpose is not to receive messages.’ — Umberto Eco, quoted in the New Yorker
Mark
July 18th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
Mark,
As a computer scientist myself, I thank you for that wonderful link. I especially like the part about how long it takes to answer a fax :>
Paul
July 19th, 2007 at 8:12 am
[...] now has me, and others, thinking of how to use the model in news releases. The current hype around Robert Scoble discussing Facebook as a new form of press releases has many people [...]
July 21st, 2007 at 4:22 pm
[...] “It’s Not a Lecture” has a terrific posting on Robert Scoble’s decision to ignore email pitches and pay attention to Facebook pitches instead. The lines are becoming [...]
February 4th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
[...] by Facebook: What do three PR flaks think of Robert Scoble’s preference for being pitched on his Facebook [...]
February 13th, 2008 at 4:16 am
[...] else all together, pitching a blog won’t simply be a case of a pithy e-mail or a clever facebook wall post - expect bloggers to want compelling content to share and voice their opinions [...]
May 16th, 2008 at 7:09 am
[...] Foremski has announced he will only accept pitches via Facebook as has Robert Scoble. Both went as far to say they’ll only listen to their list of friends on Facebook. Bad news [...]
May 23rd, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Conversations seem to become stagnant as we develop deeper information overload problems. We stop seeking new information as we try to deal with the information we already receive. If this softwear frees me up to continue finding new and better conversations, then perhaps it is wort a try. If on the other hand it becomes another time consuming attention grabber requiring continuos grooming, why bother?
May 26th, 2008 at 4:13 am
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