ZimmComm – New Media, LLC

Don’t think I didn’t hear the announcement yesterday of the iPhone. MacWorld Expo is going on and Steve Jobs made the announcement. If you think this is just a neat looking new cell phone then think again. It’s a widescreen iPod, phone and internet communications device. It’s almost enough to make me want to switch from Sprint to Cingular since you’ll only be able to use one with just the one carrier (bummer). Watch the keynote address and iphone introduction.

Now why is this important to you and me? Jobs describes the iPhone as a revolutionary device. After seeing the introduction and demonstration I agree. This thing is a lot more than just a cool gadget. It’s also a great functional tool that we’re going to literally see “out in the field.” It’s an example of where things are going in the mobile delivered content arena. In fact you might want to check out this story on eMarketer.com, “The Hottest New Media Platform of 2007 Is Right in Your Hand.”

I guess the question would be, Are you preparing to communicate with your members and customers wherever they are?

I spent an hour in an Apple store yesterday getting a very detailed demonstration of a MacBook Pro. If you think I should make the conversion please email me.

One of the first people I found when I got started blogging was Wayne Hurlbert, Blog Business World. It was a lot of his ideas about how to use a blog as a business communications tool that formed some of my ideas about how to use this great platform.

Well, Wayne’s a podcaster too and on something called Blog Talk Radio. Tonight at 8pm (Eastern) I’ll be his guest on his program “Blog Business Success Radio.” You can listen in live or use these instructions from Wayne if you can’t:

If you miss this very informative show, it will be available for download as a podcast for iPod, iTunes, and MP3 players; or play it right on your computer. To download this, or any other of my guest interviews, go to the Blog Business Success host page and click on Archived Segments. Once there, click on the podcast icon at the end of the episode description, to download the show free of charge for your listening enjoyment. You can also subscribe to the show feed.

Let’s talk with Chuck Zimmerman about podcasting and talking press releases and how they can take your media relations to the next level, on Blog Business Success Radio.

For any of you who are interested in ways to do marketing in the new media world check this out.

It’s the Word of Mouth Marketing Association’s annual event called the Word of Mouth Marketing Summit & Research Symposium. This is where you can learn all about WOM, Viral, Buzz & Blogs.

It takes place December 11-13 in Washington, DC. Here’s where you can register.

I finally created a YouTube account since I have a number of pretty cool little videos I’ve taken at various events in the last year. I just uploaded one which is probably still being processed. They give you some code you can put on your website for it so I’m posting it here to see what it looks like. If the video doesn’t show up yet, give it a while and come back.

Bear with me as I get used to this.

Blogging an event. How many of you have heard of this? Probably not many. We’re pioneering a whole new concept in journalism. What do we call it? Online journalism? What do you call it when I attend an event and post numerous pictures, audio and even video files which are usually posted while the event is happening or immediately after it’s over?

To get an idea of how extensive this coverage can be check out the posts I did at the recent Syngenta Media Day in Raleigh, NC. Syngenta Biotechnology, Inc., through their public relations agency, Gibbs & Soell, sponsored my trip. That is, they paid me to attend and write about what I saw and heard. I took photos, used some they supplied me and interviewed some of their people. This event started around 8am and was finished around 3pm. I posted 20 times including over 20 pictures and 5 audio interviews and they were all on AgWired before the end of the day (same day). Many of the posts were done during the actual presentations.

I just did a Google search for the words, Syngenta Media Day. Of 256,000 results, AgWired was the #1 result above Syngenta’s own website! Not too shabby for a little old “new media” outlet, eh?

Syngenta can now point anyone they want, including customers or media representatives who didn’t attend, to go to AgWired and view the content and download audio or images. If someone needs hi-res pictures all they have to do is email me and I’ll return one to them immediately.

At the end of the event I burned all the pictures and audio to a CD and left it with them. They can post them onto their own website and it’s my understanding that is exactly what they plan to do. Their investment in this is minimal and yet they have immediate multimedia content that’s online before the other media attending even get home to their offices.