In his popular blog, WebInkNow.com, David writes:

I’m particularly excited about how ISC hired journalists to create their newsroom, something I’ve advocated for years. This is something I’ve called brand journalism and is an increasingly effective marketing tool. In fact, ISC has hired the skills of a print journalist, a television journalist, and a photojournalist.

When a company creates information in a newsroom like ISC and updates it frequently, the valuable content is indexed by the search engines, and will gravitate into the top positions.

Imperial Sugar’s new online newsroom was developed by The News Group Net, of which I am a partner.

Click here to read David’s full story.

During the intervening nine and one-half years online, BoomerCafé has shared hundreds of stories written by baby boomers with active lifestyles, and our audience has grown. We’ve learned a lot about the boomer generation and have become experts, I suppose. Baby boomers are a diverse and independent crowd but share a common trait of being suspicious of anything “pushed” at them.  Baby boomers are also America’s most affluent group. But, you’ve got to win their respect to get their support.

AARP and few other organizations have made attempts … but have never quite succeeded at reaching the 77-million baby boomers in America, most likely because they are not subtle at either pushing or winning trust. Neither have marketers.

PR agencies, such as Fleishman and Edelman, have formed small groups in an attempt to connect their clients with boomers but their efforts have been inhibited by their overriding goal of selling more time to their clients rather than genuinely learning how to connect with the baby boomer audience.

Greg and I have, over the years, resisted suggestions to turn BoomerCafé into a site to shill products at baby boomers, even though we are convinced the site would be a unique platform for any pharmaceutical, insurance or retirement company to connect with a sizable boomer audience. For that to happen, however, marketers for those outfits must change their style from pushing to connecting.

I think it’s the hardest thing for any marketer or PR person to comprehend. In today’s world, pushing products and services is far more expensive and far less effective than connecting, listening and engaging audiences in conversation. The latter is today’s style of the Internet Era.

There is a new form of communications out there that is active and growing each day, and defining online communications for tomorrow … and trust me, it’s going to impact your world. Here’s an excerpt from Brogan’s blog:

How Does This Impact You?
Services like Twitter and FriendFeed and Flickr and Facebook and LinkedIn and more are hosting conversations around you that might be of value to you. You can’t always tune in, but if you don’t even opt to build a PORTAL into these areas so that you can learn what’s being said, you’re missing out on information that might add to your business needs.
If you’re not using services like Yelp and BrightKite, (and you could name several others), you’re missing some of the glyphs and warnings we’re leaving on the landscape to tell you about the way things are versus the way things are marketed. You’re missing chance encounters. You’re missing stray opportunities.
Again, you don’t have to get involved. It’s just that we are, and we’re passing many more notes than you can imagine.

Click here to read Secrets of the Annotated World.

The more appealing green line represents job data results for Social Network … Web 2.0 … the Digital Revolution. So as the downward job trend slumps across mainstream media, the strong growth in social online media opportunities continues.

This practice is permeating every corner of the online world, fueled by thousands of hired guns with the expertise who sit for hours before computer screens, and spew out talking points on the comment sections of blogs and get involved on social networking sites.

Newsweek carried an excellent story earlier this year about what’s going on. I predict it has intensified this campaign season.

I asked few friends in PR leadership positions at major agencies what they thought about it. Most expressed concern that such subterfuge-style damage control practice might ultimately hurt the credibility of blogs in general.

What do you think?

The new WP-Vybe theme from Michael Pollock of Solostream.com is, in my opinion, the most exciting, versatile and easy to customize WordPress theme ever. I know that’s quite a statement, given the hundreds of WordPress themes that are available.

But, all you need to do is test drive it to see WP-Vybe‘s extensive spectrum of innovative features.

After trying many WordPress themes for several years, I have found that Michael’s Solostream themes are the best … and he supports what he sells, which is a huge plus in my book.

WordPress has taken the blog world by storm because it’s so powerful and reliable. Even The New York Times and PEOPLE magazine are among the many news organizations using the same WordPress platform for news blogs. They, of course, spend thousands of dollars on creating customized themes. If you are like me, and you don’t have thousands to spend on a theme, I encourage you to take a serious look at the new WP-Vybe theme for WordPress.

By the way, you can see WP-Vybe already in action at BoomerCafé, the popular online magazine for baby boomers. We have used WP-Vybe’s light blue theme there.

Paris-based Reporters Without Borders has made available online and for free download its “Handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents.” It is the most credible standard for basic ethical and journalistic conduct in the world of blogging, in my opinion.

In today’s world of communications, corporations or organizations must behave with openness and transparency. When engaging audiences – even critics – in conversations using the communications tools of Web 2.0, companies need to accept the risk that not everyone loves them.

Now, GM has backed itself into a defensive, duck-and-cover position and has been responsible for creating adverse media coverage about itself. Not smart.

While full detail will be in my upcoming book, The Media Savvy Leader, I wanted to share some highlights on how an executive can take charge of his or her organization’s online strategy, using the tools of Web 2.0:

• Consider your organization’s culture – What is acceptable, and what is your tolerance for risk? Any New Media program involves a sense of recognizing that you are no longer fully in control, a big challenge for many executives.

• Accept that we all are doing business in a new world – The landscape has changed. Doing business today requires a sense of transparency and new ways of engaging customers, employees, stakeholders and other important audiences.

• Adapt technology to extend your distinct needs – Business-to-business, business-to-consumers, not-for-profits, government, NGOs … customize online communications and the tools of Web 2.0 to achieve your own unique voice and brand image.

• Listen, watch and monitor what’s out there online about your organization – Recognize that what might be said about your organization on a social networking site, such as Facebook, might impact everything from recruiting new employees to brand image.

• Examine how your organization packages information – In the past, an organization might have just issued a press release. Today’s communication trends require a careful look at messages, what kind of medium can be used to enhance messages, how can the information be brought to life visually and how can online technology be used to tell a more appealing story to a broader spectrum of audiences.

• Actively practice storytelling to bring your organization’s messages and communications to life. For example, the headline of a Cisco news release reads, “Cisco Gathers Global Leaders to Explore How Technology Can Transform Approach to Environmental Concerns, Sustainable and Economic Development.” The headline by itself is captivating, positions the company as a leader and is a readymade story for the media and that can be communicated effectively via nearly any tool of Web 2.0. For this event, the company’s communications includes a Webcast, blogging, podcasts, visuals and corporate Web site support, together with the more traditional PR approaches.