Just catching up on news feeds and came across a great post by Seth Godin about the “Nearly infinite” options online.

“…infinite is everywhere.

“There’s an infinite number of books at Barnes and Noble…

“There’s certainly, for all intents and purposes, an infinite number of web pages. And even Facebook, just a small subset of the web, has an infinite number of friends for you to make.”

This is a trend we’ve talked about before, and the answers aren’t easy. As the blogosphere began to take off prior to the 2004 election, becoming a promintent blogger was pretty straightforward - blog a lot, build an audience, and contribute to the conversation. Today, Technorati tracks over 112.8 million blogs, a literal infinity to anyone who might attempt to read them all.

So with the established trend of nearly infinite material online, there are two ways to try to find what you want. Seth Godin discusses the pros and cons of the first, which is search:

“Search makes the infinite finite (at least for a while). With search, we turn the infinite selection on Amazon into a nearly manageable finite selection. Except search (no matter where you look) is pretty lame, and it doesn’t really turn infinite collections into manageable choices.”

The other trend is aggregation. Large communities have formed around blogs that have taken the best of what they read and then put up links to their favorite slice of the blogosphere. For a reader daunted by the infinite options to read, such aggregator serves a very important role.

For a blogger, authority (and traffic) can come through the simple act of directing readers to other blogs. By taking on this function, the aggregator becomes a hub of traffic and influence. Once other bloggers begin to see traffic spikes from a noteworth link from the aggregator, they might begin to write for the aggregator.

This concept is not new. It’s the same concept as a magazine’s “Best of” issue or a summer reading list. It’s why we watch award shows. By going to that one place, we get to see what we want, as chosen by someone whom we respect.

But aggregation suffers from the same problem as the original content itself. If there is nearly an infinite number of blogs out there, mathmatically, there also could be a nearly infinite number of aggregators. In the face of this possibility, it seems then that the online properties best poised to capture this trend of aggregation are the very properties who have taken a leadership role in the current blogosphere. Only if they fail to adapt to this new trend of user-generated content will they be able to keep their leadership. The one exception I would make here are old media newspapers going online. If these papers would be willing to add links to their favorite blog posts alongside their own articles (beyond the current “who links here” footnote), their traffic would increase dramatically. People who get their news online read blogs, and if newspapers refuse to link to blogs via their own websites, they are missing a huge opportunity for eyeballs and ad revenue.

For the political campaign, capitalizing on this trend isn’t hard. Hillary Clinton’s campaign did it with their Hillary Hub. By aggregating all of the stories about their candidate — at least the positive ones — the Clinton campaign made their site a de facto source for information. Campaigns will often resist putting information online because they believe it provides “opposition research” to their opponents. I have news for you — your oppenents already have all the research they need. Instead, there are two audiences a Hillary Hub attracts: supporters and undecideds. And who doesn’t want to reach them?

So as talk of Web 3.0 builds, and the search mechanisms that will accompany it, aggregation needs to be a key part of the conversation as an evolving trend in online communications.

In the past few months, Notes from Flat Creek has emphasized the need to recognize the growth in digital communication, and work to incorporate it into your communication strategy. But what are the benefits of digital communication? Why should you put your valuable resources into digital communication? The answer is: because that is the direction where all types of communication are evolving, and your message stands a good chance of being ignored if you don’t.

We’ve recognized the three areas that digital communication will most impact your communications strategy:

1. Delivery – Consumers today can choose the times when they want to be communicated with. Developments like blog readers and e-newsletters allow your audience to organize communication, and process it when they choose. By incorporating these features and others like podcasts, into your strategy, you will be able to deliver your message in a way that is convenient and continually accessible to your audience.

2. Access – Closely connected with delivery is access, and in two important ways. Digital communication allows consumers to access your message when they choose, and to store it for later use if it is applicable. Also, digital communication allows you access to a consumer’s undivided attention, through tools like opt in newsletters. When your audience chooses to hear your message, it will resonate much more than if they are bombarded unwillingly.

3. Management – Digital communication offers far more organizational and analytical potential than traditional methods. Email newsletters offer the ability to track open and click through rates, so you can better determine how to present your message. Customization is much easier through digital communication. You have the ability to tailor your message to virtually unlimited parameters. Also, anybody who has experience in bulk mailing knows that hitting the send button on an email is much easier that hauling bulk mail to the post office.

Beyond incorporating digital communication simply because of shifting trends, it offers significant benefits in accessing your audience, and managing your message. Recognize the benefits, and re-align your strategy.

Flat Creek is proud to be a sponsor for Podcamp Nashville, taking place right now at the Cannery Ballroom. The room is very full for a Saturday morning with new media early adopters and those just curious about podcasting.

Podcasting has had its ups and downs with political campaigns. It’s a terrific way to reach an audience long before a candidate starts their media buy. It’s also a great way to reach out to the media through an innovative channel.

We look forward to hearing new ideas and case studies today - and bringing those ideas to our clients.

Last Wednesday (11/7/07), we put a post on Notes from Flat Creek discussing the continuing decline of print newspaper subscriptions, while internet usage and broadband subscriptions are on the rise. This shifting trend might not leave out the newspapers, though. CNET’s News.com is reporting that the online readership for newspapers, and their online subscription numbers, are climbing. The technology news website reports that the number of people visiting U.S. newspaper web sites rose 3.7 percent, over the same period last year, during the third quarter. Translated into total numbers, this increase means more than 59 million people, 37.1 percent of all active internet users, visited a newspaper website in the third quarter.

Maybe this is why Arthur Sulzberger, owner, chairman and publisher of The New York Times isn’t worried about declining print subscriptions:

“I really don’t know whether we’ll be printing the Times in five years, and you know what? I don’t care, either,” he says.

Don’t misunderstand him, though. He knows that the Times’ readership is moving to the internet, and he is preparing his paper for the change. Citing the merging of the venerable newspaper’s print and online news desks, and development of online media readers, Sulzberger is leading his empire into the internet age. It is a sign of changing times when barons of printed news respond to a shift in the communications industry.

Communication is becoming increasingly digital. Make sure your message is not going to be left behind in the newsprint world.

The Washington Post today has an article on the impact of the Internet on the 2008 presidential campaign. In short: for good and bad, it is having a huge impact.

In many ways, the Web is more effective than television advertising and direct mail, the traditional methods campaigns and independent groups have used to try to define their opponents, political analysts say. It’s cheaper, and it spreads information more quickly. But so far, anyway, its potential for affecting a presidential campaign is relatively untested.

At Flat Creek, we recognize that the Web isn’t the only tool that should be used by a campaign, but it is a powerful tool that should be given more respect. With numbers like the ones we pointed to yesterday, we have to ask a simple question - are you paying attention?

On Monday (11/5/07) the Rocky Mountain News ran a story that announced the declining subscription numbers of their paper, as well as sister publication, the Denver Post.

This is further evidence of shifting trends in communications. Print subscriptions are declining, while internet usage and broadband subscriptions are on the rise. These rising numbers have important meaning to communicators who want to reach the masses with their message.

Attention has to be paid to digital communication. Take advantage of this digital rise by incorporating a blog or RSS feed into your website. People want to be communicated with when it is convenient for them, and tools like blog readers allow them to do that. In our world, news presses only run once a day, but the internet is always on. Stay ahead of the game and take advantage of digital communication.

It’s okay, we understand. In a billable, 80-hour work week world, redesigning your website is not a top priority.

We know you want to refresh the look of your website, but it’s an easy project to push to the bottom of your to-do list.

So as our holiday gift to you, Flat Creek is offering a deal with a deadline - a brand new, custom website suited for you and your audiences by December 31, 2007.

Gear up for a campaign year. Reach out to new clients. Enhance content for donors. Whatever your organization does, with a new, compelling, and interactive website from Flat Creek, you can do it better.

Contact us today to get started. To get your site done by December 31, we’ll need to get started by December 1. First come first serve.

Kick off the New Year with a new website from Flat Creek. It’s a great project to check off your list.

Raise your hand if you have a Facebook and/or MySpace profile. Anyone here on LinkedIn? Have you ever commented on a blog?

If so, you’re part of a changing dynamic in how we communicate that very few PR professionals understand. At Flat Creek, we work to integrate communications messages across various channels, insisting that our clients focus on delivering an outstanding service or product as the basis for a good reputation. The product, the audience, and the goal are what matter most from a PR perspective.

Richard Edelman, the well-regarded president and CEO of the global PR firm which goes by his name, shares this sentiment in a recent post about how corporations must adapt their communications efforts in order to maintain some sort of brand integrity. His full post can be found here, but I’ve listed a few notable lines below:

“My central thesis is that corporations can’t buy reputation or brand loyalty any more. These are earned through performance over the long-term.”

“In this changed environment, I believe that PR can adapt as well as, if not faster, than any other communications discipline… Our aim is to educate when possible, build bridges when necessary, and respect the new market-based conversations always.”

“The new reality for communications is the sphere of cross reference, in which information moves unpredictably among equal stakeholders. Conversations now occur spontaneously, in peer-to-peer discussion, with individuals creating their own webs of trust including people like themselves.”

KEY NOTE: “PR is simply a reflection of reality, well presented perhaps but based on fact and behavior.”

National Journal has a great article today about a new process for drafting legislation:

“The standard method for writing a bill would have had [Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill.] and his aides calling in consumer groups, telecommunications lobbyists, and technology experts to hash out the details. Instead, Durbin reached out to the editors of two online political blogs so that he could hear directly from their readers.”

While the article (found here) is an interesting anecdote about the impact of the Internet on Capitol Hill, there are several deeper questions that come to mind from my perspective as a digital PR practitioner. How did Durbin and his staff decide which blogs to reach out to? Who was posting comments to his posts? Did any organizations with a stake in rural broadband access get wind of his efforts and e-mail their supporters to get involved with the conversation?

If Members of Congress are reaching out to Internet users directly, how is your organization positioned to have a prominent voice in the virtual policy debates of the future?

There are several options, most of which begin with active monitoring of the blogosphere and having the ability to mobilize supporters quickly. Contact us and we can talk more about positioning your clients, organization, or message in order to be a part of the online legislative process.

With the bounty of e-newsletters that fill our inboxes every day, it’s easy to overlook them. It’s also easy to hate them. But rarely do we take the time to forward them to clients or friends who may be interested in the topic presented. Before forwarding, however, take a moment to delete the unsubscribe link from the bottom. We’ve seen all too many clients of our own who have lost valuable subscribers after the subscriber forwarded their e-mail on to someone else, only to have that person click the Unsubscribe link.

So while it’s a great practice to forward e-newsletters just to let people know you are thinking about them, be sure they don’t get the chance to cut you off from those subscriptions you do enjoy.