New Media Morsels Published June - July 2008 Australian workplace survey on Internet use Recent Deacons’ research provides a snapshot of Internet use in Australian workplaces. The survey found 62 percent of workers have access to the Internet from work and of these: 14 percent use it at some time to access social networking sites. Usage is significantly higher among younger workers with 32 percent of 16-24 year olds and 23 percent of 25-34 year olds reporting frequent or occasional use. 20 percent said their employer blocked access to social networking sites while 57 percent said their employer allowed it (23 percent did not know). 76 percent of workers who use the Internet at work could see a benefit to their organisation in allowing access to social networking sites believing it showed: - trust in employees (68 percent); - gave people a break from day to day work and kept them fresh (48 percent); and - allowed them to better network with other employees, customers and suppliers (40 percent). See how the biggest companies are blogging Should you blog or should you not?  How to do you address the issue of getting into blogging? These are questions that are taxing the minds of communicators and marketers. However, theory is one thing. What’s often most helpful is to see what others are doing and how they are doing it. That’s why this link, to a wiki which enables you from the one source to view all (or most) of the blogs being run by Fortune 500 companies, is worth a look if you are serious about blogging. The list includes Starbucks, Yahoo, Coca-Cola and many more. http://www.socialtext.net/bizblogs/index.cgi?fortune_500_business_blogging_wiki Power-Tweeting: 101 Everyday Uses for Twitter Heard about Twitter but don’t really understand what this social media tool does? Or know about Twitter and can’t quite see how you might use it? The simple dictionary definition of "Twitter" is "microblogging/social networking platform that places a 140- character limit on each individual post/tweet."                                       Twitter can be viewed at as a ‘marketing tool, feedreader, tracking device, communication tool & news breaker’ all rolled into one. Or, Twitter can be seen as a collective life stream of a community of which you are a member. Go here to find out more and to learn of 101 everyday uses for twitter http://www.insidecrm.com/features/101-twitter-uses-052008/ A new and innovative web tool Dixero is a free and innovative Web-based tool which allows you to listen to your favourite RSS feeds directly online, on your computer as a Podcast, or using a portable device, like an iPod! http://dixero.com/ Google Algorithm update causes disruptions Google recently undertook another of its regular major algorithm updates. This means it has made changes and modifications to the criteria by which it evaluates and ranks material. As normally happens when such changes are made, it can have the temporary effect of throwing havoc into the marketplace resulting in rankings on search engines suddenly changing.  This means that keywords that were working fine one week may not work at all the next. Some US commentators reported that for those organisations using SEM (i.e. buying ad words) traffic dropped by as much as 75 percent for a period, which in turn impacted on the revenue they were able to generate through web-based selling. As the Google algorithm is secret, and Google never makes comment on this subject, market observers have been left speculating why the changes are being made and what they mean. Is some form of SEO or SEM being punished?  Will new types of content rank better in Google in the future? The answer is that no-one knows.  The best advice is to sit-tight for a period of a few weeks while the changes work their way through the system. Then go back in and re-examine all keyword strategies to see if they will still be effective. Network PR, publishers of PR Influences, is the first Australian pr agency to provide online pr, including search engine optimisation. Contact Network PR to find out how you can integrate online pr into your communications mix by starting with an Online Health Assessment.

PR Influences: New Media Morsels