This is something I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about too.

What makes a great selection of links? Does it take a million people? Or only a handful.

I’ve been comparing my link blog to TechMeme and Digg and others enough to know that my links are pretty darn interesting. But there are times when I fall down on the job. When Milan is smiling at me, for instance. Or when I have chores. Or, when I have to speak, like I’m doing this morning at San Francisco State University, or with a bunch of journalists and famous VC’s on Wednesday night at a PRSA shindig in Silicon Valley.

One app in Facebook, FeedHeads, taught me that a small number of people can really pick some killer things. But one problem: that app is often down for me and I find I don’t trust it and it’s not fast like TechMeme is, so I usually default back to TechMeme.

The top shared item view in FeedHeads, though, is really much faster than Digg or TechMeme to get cool stuff up on it. Something about it is really intriguing.

Steve Gillmor has talked with me a lot about this, too. He’s noticed that if he chooses the news reading behaviors of only a handful of people that he can get much better results than if he has a larger group.

Why is that?

I think it’s because we like our news focused. So if we find a news junkie who thinks like us we’ll find that person to have high utility. If you put him in a group of other people his utility will go down and the noise we’ll have to slog through to find a good set of articles that interest us will go up.

That sure explains Digg and its problems to me. I used to love Digg. Now it’s just a stream of noise that largely duplicates what’s coming through my feed reader.

Google Reader tells me that over the past 30 days I’ve read 39,712 items and shared 1,045 items. The thing is that’s probably only about half of the good items cause I can’t read around the clock and have other things to do than just read feeds.

So, lets say I hooked up with five other people who picked the same kinds of items. We could hit nearly 100% of the feeds that I read (and we could add some other feeds). Five people could beat TechMeme. Why? TechMeme is slow. I often put stuff on my link blog before TechMeme gets it. If we had a team reading feeds around the clock we’d regularly beat TechMeme or Google News or Digg or Reddit or TailRank.

And we’d have less noise. At least if you liked the things the five of us pick. If you don’t, then Digg will look better to you.

Anyway, this is a long way of saying that I’m looking forward to seeing what Dave Winer does in this space. There certainly is a lot of great stuff that doesn’t get proper attention on sites like TechMeme, Digg, etc. If this effort helps great stuff get more people to read it, I’m all for it.

Question: what do you think about Digg or TechMeme or Google News or other news aggregation sites? What are you hoping to see?

Comments

Tag:

Fifteen minutes before the session, the room was packed with people eventually standing against the back wall and it was clear that both the room and the topic of social media were going to be hot.

After introductions Peter Himler started out the session by having Rob, Nicco and I explain our respective companies and provide insights into the over riding topic of PR and social media. Rob always does a nice job with that as he’s quite “in the thick” of social media from every angle, ranging from search to PR to virtual worlds. In fact, his company Converseon won an OMMA Award for their work with “Second Chance Trees“, a virtual world project directed towards promoting reforestation both virtually and in the real world.

As the webmaster for the wildly successful online campaign website for Howard Dean, Nicco provided a unique perspective about building communities online. Nicco now works on projects like Rosie O’Donnell’s blog.

My charge was to talk about how search marketing affects PR and social media as well as the importance of Google to that end. If you read this blog regularly, then you’ll know I went on my regular rant about Push and Pull PR, holistic content optimization, top down keyword messaging with all digital communications, digital asset optimization and the effects both on influencing search results in a Universal Search environment as well as creating direct interaction opportunities with distinct search channels.

The rest of the session focused on questions from Peter to the panel and from the audience. While I’ve become fairly adept at live blogging conferences, I’m not so great at doing so while speaking/answering questions so hopefully there are a few blog posts out there of the session with details. Questions did range from “How do I comment on a blog?” to asking for examples of how to leverage social media for reputation management.

At one point near the end of the session, Peter Himler asked the panel what books they would recommend for PR practitioners as they try to navigate the new waters of social media and getting buy in. Interestingly, Peter, Rob and myself all recommended Mike Moran’s new book “Do It Wrong Quickly” which was the focus of yesterday’s blog post.

It was a great session and very full. Hopefully PRSA will be able to secure larger rooms next year as this topic will only grow in importance if not for the momentum, but for the pressure managers and clients will be putting on their PR agencies to help them figure out where social media fits (if at all) within their PR strategy.

Here’s our Flickr set for the PRSA conference and the official conference blog. Although, Josh Hallett, who recently joined Voce and writes the Hyku blog, has taken by far the best photos of the PRSA conference.

After the session I visited the exhibit hall which seemed like a sprinkle of companies compared to the monstrosity at the DMA07 show last week. If you want to get a dose of over stimulation, walk the DMA trade show floor with all the different print materials, semi trucks and monster exhibit booths vying for your attention.

I spoke with Sarah and Michael at PRNewswire and had my photo taken for some kind of promotion they might be doing with an ad on Times Square. We’ll see about that one.

I talked briefly with Joe Beaulaurier of Vocus/PRWeb and then stopped by the Marketwire booth to see what they’re up to. Apparently they’ve partnered with Bruce Clay to develop tools for optimizing your press release. They also have a social media news release offering. I had lots of questions and a few recommendations and it was an interesting conversation. With all the bells and whistles that are being implemented with the wire services, I really wonder how much research has been done with journalists to see if they even care about multimedia and social media enhanced press releases. Marketwire says they have the results of a survey coming out soon.

Another booth that caught my eye (cool branding and message) was radian6 which is a social media monitoring solution – similar perhaps, to Buzzlogic or Converson’s Conversation Miner offering. Manning the booth were David Alston and Chris Ramsey who showed me a “wow that’s cool” demo of how their software tracks conversations and presents numerous flexible ways of filtering the data to identify advertising opportunities on sites, blogs or social media communities where there’s a burst of viral traffic as well as brand and topic monitoring.

A powerful web crawler is behind all the data capture and ability to report in near real time what’s happening on the social web. If it works out, I may do some testing of the radian6 application and report my findings here. In the meantime, here’s their blog.

The day ended with a nice blogger/geek dinner at Marathon Grill where I had a chance to chat with Brandy of WebmasterRadio.FM, PRSA conference and PR blogger/practitioner Kami Watson Huyse, Barbara McDonald a VP at PRSA, Eric Schwartzman of On the Record Online podcast (who interviewed me Sunday am) and Li Evans who drove down for the dinner.

The next day was filled catching up with all the emails I missed during DMA07 last week and over the weekend. I also worked on preparations for an upcoming teleconference with Bulldog Reporter , “Boosting Web Traffic: Best New Ways PR Can Supercharge Websites to Drive Investors, Journalists and Customers to Visit Online” with participants from Intel, iProspect, MWW Group, Ogilvy PR and TopRank. The teleconference is scheduled for November 1st at 1pm EDT.

A quick stop and chat with Eddie and Brandy of WebmasterRadio.FM (Daron was sick – food poisoning) and I was off to do a 2 hour tour of Philly, hitting the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall and then over to the Philadelphia Art Museum which wouldn’t be complete without a quick shot of the Rocky statue before catching a taxi to the airport.

Next up should be ad:tech in New York.

Comments

I’m only aware of the associations that serve my profession, the likes of PRSA, CPRS, and the organization to which I’ve belonged since 1977, IABC.

These associations have fulfilled several vital needs for a long time, primarily networking and professional development. However, practitioners don’t need associations for these activities any more. Social media have enabled self-organizing groups to satisfy these professional needs. Some examples:

• While the last Global PR Web Week was nearly two years ago, it shows what can hapen online when a group of volunteers throw their hats in the ring.
• CaseCamp is a self-organizing “unconference” focused on marketing, although anyone interested in any profession could use the same model to put together a similar unconference focused on their own field. In fact, CaseCamp is based on BarCamp, which focuses on web applications, and DemoCamp, a BarCamp offshoot that allows for more regular networking.
• PodCamp, another unconference based on the BarCamp/CaseCamp model, focuses on podcasting. I mention it separately because the recent New York PodCamp drew more than 1,000 participants (only about 400 shy of the typical attendance at an IABC international conference) and some heavyweight sponsors. Like all of these unconferences, the registration is free and the agenda is self-organized using a wiki.
• Third Thursday is a monthly meeting of Bay Area PR and marketing pros interested in learning more about the practical applications of new media in business. It’s currently jointly sponsored by The Social Media Club and The Society for New Communications Research, but was organized by four practitioners who saw a need and started Third Thursday to meet it. In Toronto, the effort has been duplicated with Third Tuesday, while Ottawa offers Third Monday.
• Social networks focused on communications offer individuals another cost-free alternative for networking and knowledge sharing. MyRagan has already attracted several thousand members.

The point is that, given the social network that allows individuals to self-organize for networking and professional development, these benefits of association membership—at a cost of several hundred dollars per year—may lose their appeal. That’s not to suggest these associations can’t provide genuine value that makes the dues worthwhile. And it’s not to suggest that the 14,000 members of IABC are ready to jump ship for online networking just yet. It’s still pretty much the early adopters who have figured out that the network itself can provide the benefits for which they used to rely on their associations. So IABC, PRSA, CPRS—and all those other associations in other professions—still have time to define that role that the social media space cannot play.

But they’d better get started now. Things move fast these days.

Comments

Healthcare is different from other practices in PR. You have the whole direct-to-consumer guidelines from the FDA, and then you have a ton of other issues in dealing with the press and social media.

But, it’s beyond that. When you are working in social media, you are entering a community. Too many PR people don’t get that – they view social media – or just blogs – as another media venue, that can be pitched. Just today, I was sent a press release from a firm in Los Angeles – no pitch letter, no garnering my interest on the subject, just the press release. And, that does not work.

When explaining social media, I use a Town Hall analogy. From a conversation with a friend, she wrote it out like this: Imagine a small New England town with a highly civically-active community. On a regular basis this tightly-knit community hosts Town Hall meetings to discuss current events, areas of concern, etc. Now imagine someone wholly unconnected to community coming in, raising a topic of concern and just leavinMe and AmyMe and Amyg. Town Hall meeting members have every reason to be annoyed, incensed and even hostile.

Now take that Town Hall scenario, multiply it exponentially, and stick it online – where anyone and everyone can see it. The quaint little Town Hall is now a blog. And the outside, rude intruders are PR people – those that neither seem to care or understand the community, but are just following orders to get "ink" no matter what.

For healthcare, take that Town Hall scenario, and put it in the hospital ward. With some health blogs, you are either talking to the patient, or the patient’s relative.

Now, unless you have ever been sick, you cannot truly empathize with that scenario. So, imagine some asshat barging into your hospital room to talk to you about new medicines, or a new treatment. That’s the PR person trying to pitch you on something – or just imagine them not even saying hello, but just dropping off a press kit / press release. That, essentially, happened to me today.

Okay, going to take it personal here – something, I rarely do on the blog. I was a relatively sick kid – surgery at 9, surgery at 21, surgery at 21. So, when I hear PR people saying "let’s pitch this community or that community," I want to scream. Just because you do outreach for one type of client within a healthcare community does not give you carte blanch to reach out to the group for another client. These are relationships that you have built, but you are a guest in that community. To treat it otherwise is being exploitive.

Here’s a perfect example: because of my surgery at 21, I have side effects that occur once a year. I take some pills for one week, and it is over. But, I do check Google Blog Search and Technorati (when it works ) and look to see if there are any advances or new medicines on the horizon. Last time I did this, I found a 25 year old guy in Los Angeles that was going to have the same surgery as I did at 21. I wrote to him, told him how the surgery went for me, and we have been in email correspondence since then.

Yes, I became a part of a community. Am I going to pitch him some product now, because I have built a relationship there? Not at all – it’s tacky, it’s exploitive, it’s just wrong.

Put yourself in his shoes – or any other healthcare blogger that is a patient. You have to be smart in reaching out to any blogger, but hypersensitive in reaching out to healthcare bloggers. Pitch things that are relevant – new medicines (yes, that can work), new procedures or needles, new fundraising efforts – but don’t pitch vertical products that can be view as just, well, insulting.

For the podcast, and to see what else was discussed, check it out here.

A quick thanks to Mason Cole for organizing this gig and allowing me to share my sick knowledge of acronyms. I won’t rehash the talk here, I think PRSA will have audio available shortly. What I will say is that it’s easy to be enamored with shiny new technologies and tools, especially right now, but it’s much harder to determine where these things can be intelligently (and practically) applied in a comms program. Experimentation is good, but utility is the goal.

Comments

Tag:

Add to Del.icio.us | Digg | Yahoo! My Web | Furl

Bookmark WebProNews:

Mike Manuel is the founder of the award winning Media Guerrilla blog. Media Guerrilla is an insiders take on the practice of technology public relations with a focus on the issues, tactics and trends that are specific to the tech industry.

Visit Media Guerrilla …

Some highlights from that post:

Who do you read online?

Markoff: I read ValleyWag, Digg has replaced Slashdot for me, The Register there are too many blogs in my blogreader, too many unread stories, which says that the model is broken on too much data.

Clark: C/Net for tech news, the Register, the Inquirer – as for online, and I like that I can up the size of the font.

What are the most compelling pitches, the way you like to get pitches?
Clark: We are the last person to write on a company launch. I like cool companies with cool ideas – I feel retro that I still do stories on launches.

But, most small companies have to wrap themselves up in a larger trend. What’s absolutely unique about the company? You want to be part of a larger trend, be part of a movement, so we can write about the company. You can segment the answers, see in the larger context and broadest way possible.

We wrote first about Napster and its legal issues – but we missed the sociological story. It’s about the big picture, what is important as a reader, and to the reader.

Goldberg: it is pretty hard for a small company to get its voice heard, but there are a lot of ways into the paper. It is the creative pitch – it is community, personality, what the company is doing exemplifying a larger trend. Show the trend. There are ways to pitch the story. Send emails – don’t fax!

Kehoe: Context, context, context. Put in a human element, add some tension. There does not need to be great conflict, but it can be a David v Goliath type-story.

Markoff: 1989 was the last time I was asked the question. Then, there was a wewsletter that came out that said I could not think of a way for small companies to get press.

I look at everything for better or ill, and email is my way to look and read everything. I respond to the things I can do something with, that are a potential story. I am not changing that, but I am looking and I do what I can do – with 100-150 emails from PR people a day, if I gave them all a fair hearing, that is all I would do during the day.

I practice triage, but I do not want you to go away.

Go read the rest of the post – some great advice for students, and a refresher course for those that have been in PR.

Add to | Digg | Yahoo! My Web

Technorati:

Jeremy Pepper is the CEO and founder of POP! Public Relations, a public relations firm based in Arizona, USA.

He authors the popular Musings from POP! Public Relations blog which offers Jeremy’s opinions and views – on public relations, publicity and other things.

Back in November, Shel Israel noted in his Naked Coversations blog that blogrolls were once popular, but “That was then This is now.”

Back then, we were all struggling to discover new writers who appealed to each of us. It seems to me that now, we are each struggling to keep up with the overwhelming abundance of things we have discovered and enjoy, but don’t have the time to loyally follow.

Several comments to Shel’s post suggest blogrolls have become irrelevant. Steve Rubel, PR A-lister, has removed the blogroll from Micro Persuasion.

Those arguing against blogrolls, though, have been around the blogosphere for a while. For instance, one of the comments to the Naked Conversations blog notes that the author doesn’t pay attention to blogrolls “any more.” It’s the “any more” part that’s worth some thought. As I travel and speak, I find one of the most common recurring questions from audiences of communicators is, “How do I find blogs?” Of course, I point to Technorati and other blog search engines. But those who have not yet become regular readers of blogs are usually most intrigued by the blogroll. All they need to find is one blog that addresses a subject they’re interested in; the blogroll will direct them to more. In a recent talk I gave to a PRSA chapter, one communicator in the audience said, “Oh, I get it. It’s like saying, If you like this blog, you’ll like these.’”

Exactly. Perhaps those of us who have been blogging for a while find blogrolls irrelevant, but it’s a bit jaded to think they serve no purpose since research makes it clear that most people don’t yet read blogs…and that includes members of our own profession. I’d like to think this blog attracts new readers-including those new to the blogosphere-all the time. So I’ll keep pointing them to other PR bloggers. It’s premature to pronounce the blogroll’s demise.

Shel Holtz is principal of Holtz Communication + Technology which focuses on helping organizations apply online communication capabilities to their strategic organizational communications.

As a professional communicator, Shel also writes the blog a shel of my former self.

The conference was held at the ancient Knickerbocker hotel, where in-room broadband ran $9.95 a night. (The day is coming when hotel-wide WiFi will be free.) You even had to pay, I was told, when connecting to the WiFi in the lobby. And although the ballroom where the conference was held was just off the lobby, the signal didn’t reach that far. Thus, a number of attendees who would have liked to blog the conference were frustrated in their efforts.

Blogging the conference would have provided Ragan with a number of benefits. The links to the company from these blog postings would have given it a ton of Google juice. Readers of these blogs would have learned about the company and ultimately some would have been enticed to attend next year’s conference, or perhaps some other Ragan professional development offering. The cost of providing WiFi in the ballroom (where every session was held) would have been dramatically offset by the free publicity provided by these would-be bloggers.

IABC offers free WiFi at the trade show at its international conferences, but not in the meeting rooms where bloggers would need it to write in near-real-time about the sessions. I’m not sure what PRSA or other communication organizations do, but I’d be surprised if any made WiFi pervasively available wherever their conferences are taking place. I hope I’m surprised soon.

Shel Holtz is principal of Holtz Communication + Technology which focuses on helping organizations apply online communication capabilities to their strategic organizational communications.

As a professional communicator, Shel also writes the blog a shel of my former self.

… our colleague Steve Lubetkin has produced a podcast with John Deveney, another IABC stalwart who had to leave his home and business as Hurricane Katrina approached.

Produced in cooperation with PRSA, the podcast features Deveney talking with Steve Lubetkin about his experience and providing “advice for public relations practitioners reevaluating their own firms’ crisis communications preparedness.”

Deveney is now back in New Orleans-his home is in the quarter, one of the highest parts of the city and least affected by flooding-and working with the New Orleans Travel and Tourism Bureau where he is coordinating media relations from the Bureau’s crisis operations center.

Reader Comments…

Shel Holtz is principal of Holtz Communication + Technology which focuses on helping organizations apply online communication capabilities to their strategic organizational communications.

As a professional communicator, Shel also writes the blog a shel of my former self.

Read Neville’s comments

I’ve taken my own stand, so to speak, in castigating our professional associations – notably, IABC and PRSA – for their lack of taking a stand on something that is fundamental to the credibility, trust and respect that we as communicators, as well as others, hold of the profession.

When Ketchumgate blew up in the blogosphere in January, led by a hefty swipe at PR bloggers by US journalist and writer Jay Rosen, there was lots of opinion and discussion in lots of blogs. Ultimately, everything died down and nothing changed.

But we could have some traction building now, a couple of significant steps along the road to getting this subject on the agenda in order to create an effective framework for a meaningful discussion about ethics in the profession. Such discussion could lead to the creation of a universal ethics code for the profession.

Fanciful? I don’t think so. It’s not yet the tipping point but it looks like it could be moving that way.

The first step happened earlier this month when Richard Edelman – one of the profession’s most authoritative voices – posted commentary in his blog about British publicist Max Clifford and how PR is being defined by a lowest common denominator. His post included this call:

We need a code of ethics and we need to be prepared to live by it. Violators of the code should be exposed and subject to some form of sanction.

Then last Thursday, Warren Bickford (IABC’s incoming chairman for the 2005-2006 term), posted the full text of IABC’s code of ethics in the IABC Cafe, IABC’s relaunched chairman’s blog.

What I find most interesting about this is that Warren posted the text in response to a discussion that’s rapidly developing in the comments area of another post on that blog to do with the type of advocacy role a professional association like IABC should adopt, on what issues, and how it should do it (I suggested there that ethics is one of those issues).

This is by no means a minor matter for IABC. Historically, IABC has never assumed an advocacy role on anything outside its membership focus. Now, there is a healthy discussion going on that, if progressed to a conclusion, could see a major shift in how IABC behaves and acts as a professional association.

As I’ve said before, one of the simplest ways for an association like IABC to take a stand on ethics is to visibly and actively promote (advocate) its own existing ethics code. In posting the full text in the IABC blog, Warren has made a start on doing precisely that.

Let’s not ignore such steps forward nor allow them to wither on the vine.

If you’re a communication professional with an opinion, add your thoughts to the debate.

And for your convenience, here is the IABC code of ethics (including additional content on enforcement and communication):

IABC Code of Ethics

Preface

Because hundreds of thousands of business communicators worldwide engage in activities that affect the lives of millions of people, and because this power carries with it significant social responsibilities, the International Association of Business Communicators developed the Code of Ethics for Professional Communicators.

The Code is based on three different yet interrelated principles of professional communication that apply throughout the world.

These principles assume that just societies are governed by a profound respect for human rights and the rule of law; that ethics, the criteria for determining what is right and wrong, can be agreed upon by members of an organization; and, that understanding matters of taste requires sensitivity to cultural norms.

These principles are essential:

- Professional communication is legal.
- Professional communication is ethical.
- Professional communication is in good taste.

Recognizing these principles, members of IABC will:

* engage in communication that is not only legal but also ethical and sensitive to cultural values and beliefs;
* engage in truthful, accurate and fair communication that facilitates respect and mutual understanding; and,
* adhere to the following articles of the IABC Code of Ethics for Professional Communicators.

Because conditions in the world are constantly changing, members of IABC will work to improve their individual competence and to increase the body of knowledge in the field with research and education.

Articles

1. Professional communicators uphold the credibility and dignity of their profession by practicing honest, candid and timely communication and by fostering the free flow of essential information in accord with the public interest.
2. Professional communicators disseminate accurate information and promptly correct any erroneous communication for which they may be responsible.
3. Professional communicators understand and support the principles of free speech, freedom of assembly, and access to an open marketplace of ideas; and, act accordingly.
4. Professional communicators are sensitive to cultural values and beliefs and engage in fair and balanced communication activities that foster and encourage mutual understanding.
5. Professional communicators refrain from taking part in any undertaking which the communicator considers to be unethical.
6. Professional communicators obey laws and public policies governing their professional activities and are sensitive to the spirit of all laws and regulations and, should any law or public policy be violated, for whatever reason, act promptly to correct the situation.
7. Professional communicators give credit for unique expressions borrowed from others and identify the sources and purposes of all information disseminated to the public.
8. Professional communicators protect confidential information and, at the same time, comply with all legal requirements for the disclosure of information affecting the welfare of others.
9. Professional communicators do not use confidential information gained as a result of professional activities for personal benefit and do not represent conflicting or competing interests without written consent of those involved.
10. Professional communicators do not accept undisclosed gifts or payments for professional services from anyone other than a client or employer.
11. Professional communicators do not guarantee results that are beyond the power of the practitioner to deliver.
12. Professional communicators are honest not only with others but also, and most importantly, with themselves as individuals; for a professional communicator seeks the truth and speaks that truth first to the self.

Enforcement and Communication of the IABC Code for Professional Communicators

IABC fosters compliance with its Code by engaging in global communication campaigns rather than through negative sanctions. However, in keeping with the sixth article of the IABC Code, members of IABC who are found guilty by an appropriate governmental agency or judicial body of violating laws and public policies governing their professional activities may have their membership terminated by the IABC executive board following procedures set forth in the association’s bylaws.

IABC encourages the widest possible communication about its Code.

The IABC Code of Ethics for Professional Communicators is published in several languages and is freely available to all: Permission is hereby granted to any individual or organization wishing to copy and incorporate all or part of the IABC Code into personal and corporate codes, with the understanding that appropriate credit be given to IABC in any publication of such codes.

The IABC Code is published in the association’s annual directory, The WorldBook of IABC Communicators. The association’s monthly magazine, Communication World, publishes periodic articles dealing with ethical issues. At least one session at the association’s annual conference is devoted to ethics. The international headquarters of IABC, through its professional development activities, encourages and supports efforts by IABC student chapters, professional chapters, and districts/regions to conduct meetings and workshops devoted to the topic of ethics and the IABC Code. New and renewing members of IABC sign the following statement as part of their application: “I have reviewed and understand the IABC Code of Ethics for Professional Communicators.”

As a service to communicators worldwide, inquiries about ethics and questions or comments about the IABC Code may be addressed to members of the IABC Ethics Committee. The IABC Ethics Committee is composed of at least three accredited members of IABC who serve staggered three-year terms. Other IABC members may serve on the committee with the approval of the IABC executive committee. The functions of the Ethics Committee are to assist with professional development activities dealing with ethics and to offer advice and assistance to individual communicators regarding specific ethical situations.

While discretion will be used in handling all inquiries about ethics, absolute confidentiality cannot be guaranteed. Those wishing more information about the IABC Code or specific advice about ethics are encouraged to contact IABC World Headquarters (One Hallidie Plaza, Suite 600, San Francisco, CA 94102 USA; phone, +1 415 544 4700; fax, +1 415 544 4747).

[Source: http://www.iabc.com/members/joining/code.htm]

Neville Hobson is the author of the popular NevilleHobson.com blog which focuses on business communication and technology.

Neville is currentlly the VP of New Marketing at Crayon. Visit Neville Hobson’s blog: NevilleHobson.com.