Tumblr is certainly growing in popularity.  A recent Mashable article mentioned that according to ComScore, Tumblr scored 13.4 million unique visitors in the U.S. in July, increasing 218% from the same time last year. The “blog-meets-social-network service” is experiencing what most are calling explosive growth.   Tumblr has been on my radar for quite sometime having witnessed how our teens use it and rave about it.  However, that doesn’t mean that the younger generation is abandoning Facebook any time soon.  Now, they’re using both networks for similar yet different reasons.

I asked two teenagers (ages 16 & 17) about their passion for Tumblr and Facebook because I wanted insight into their fascination with both communities.  I thought it would help me to understand the difference from a teen’s point of view.  Here’s the interview with teens that were more than willing to offer their raw and youthful insight (unedited and uncensored content):

Q: What’s the difference between Tumblr and Facebook?

-       Tumblr is a blog and Facebook isn’t.

-       Facebook doesn’t allow you to blog.

-       Facebook is a place to connect with friends.

-       I think Tumblr is an anti-social social network.

-       Tumblr is less of a place to connect and is more an expression of myself.

Q: Which do you use more?

-       Tumblr, because it’s better than Facebook.

• I don’t care what people think about what I say.
• It’s easier to update your status on Facebook, but we just don’t care enough to do that all of the time.

-       On Tumblr you can say what you’re doing, but you don’t have too say what you’re doing.

• I don’t want everyone to know what I’m doing.
• On Tumblr, it’s more socially acceptable to not say what you’re doing.

Q: Would you stop interacting on one to spend all of your time on the other?

-       We don’t want to give up Facebook.

• It’s necessary because it’s an easy way to find something out.
• We get homework from classmates and we don’t have to text a best friend to see what she’s doing.

-       Facebook has a connection purpose, but Tumblr is about me!

-       On Tumblr I can relate to others more than I can on Facebook.

-       When you talk to people you don’t know on Tumblr it’s awesome, but you can’t do this on Facebook, it’s really creepy.

-       You can tell so much more about a person on Tumblr because it’s about the individual and not about connecting with other people.

Q: What do you like the most about Tumblr?

-       Personally, it gives me inspiration for the things I like…photography, art, cool images.

-       You can find a blog about anything you love.  I follow a bunch of Lady Gaga blogs … it all comes up on your dashboard and you can fill your dash with things you like.

-       On Facebook you see all the things you don’t like.

-       On Tumblr, you can catch up on the videos, memes and all the funny stuff.

-       We’re learning more on Tumblr about news, information and things about the Internet.  We found out that Osama Bin Laden was dead and all about Libya on Tumblr.

-       I even donated to a cancer cause through Tumblr.

Q: What do you like the most about Facebook?

-       You get to talk to friends, writing funny things on other people’s walls, look at friends’ photos and videos.

-       No games though…I use my phone for games or my iPod.

-       We also like to see when people are single or in a relationship (except when it’s someone you like).

-       There are a lot of people who like to have many friends, it’s not as important to us, but we know people who love the popularity of having a big network. When I had over 1,000 friends, I started to delete them.

-       I like the hide functionality on Facebook because I can hide people and they don’t know it.

-       I play around with the privacy settings so that some people can see certain things and others can’t.

Q: What is missing from either one of these networks (if you could sit in a room and tell Mark Zuckerberg or David Karp to add features, what would those features be)?

-       No changes right now to either network.

-       Both places are perfect for what they provide.

-       I may not ask them to change anything, but if I could sit in a room with David Karp, then I might just ask for him for a hug.

-       I might ask to visit Mark Zuckerberg’s new house

Q: Do you think you will stay on Tumblr and Facebook or if something better comes along you will jump ship?

-       I wouldn’t leave Tumblr … but I might leave Facebook.

-       We left MySpace, which was a crappy combination of both Facebook and Tumblr.

-       Now we just like that Tumblr and Facebook are two individual and separate networks that both make a lot of sense for us.

There you have it…the feelings of teens about their likes and dislikes when it comes to engagement preferences (or lack thereof).  The strongest opinion comes down to expression and individuality, and not necessarily connections. It should be interesting to see how Tumblr and Facebook continue to grow and what these communities offer to the teens that have very strong convictions about why they participate on two very different networks.

A few weeks ago, I highlighted some helpful technology available today to help you strategize, analyze relationships, add to your productivity and visualize the affects of social communications.    I mentioned that it was important to be a Technology Tester, to take the time to research and test technology to have the right tools in your social media toolkit.  The four resources in the post included:  the Vocus Social Media Strategy App, Post Planner for Facebook, Asterisq Mention Map and Cloud.li.

I caught up with Julie Cros, founder of Post Planner, and was interested to learn how she married marketing and technology.  With so many of us learning, testing and embracing technology, I asked Julie to share her story on how and why she decided to launch the Post Planner Facebook application.

Here’s my interview with Julie Cros:

Q1:    How did you come up with the idea to create Post Planner?

Post Planner was born out of a personal need that evolved into a business one. I was going away for the weekend and wanted to share some useful information with my community while I was away. I knew I could use one of the social media dashboards to schedule my post, but thought it was a bit of a pain to download a dashboard to my desktop or log in to another website. I started looking for a Facebook app for planning posts, but couldn’t find anything easy to use.

So the app idea stayed in my mind for the next couple days before I thought of it as a business idea.  Then I realized the potential and added value a comprehensive Facebook-located scheduling tool could have for brands and companies.

Q2:    How does Post Planner help PR and marketing professionals?  How is it different than other apps?

Post Planner is strictly Facebook focused, and has quickly become the must-have business app of many PR and marketing experts. It just makes their daily operations easier.

With Post Planner, PR Marketers can plan and strategize future wall posts in a matter of minutes. The app (which, again, is built directly into Facebook) lets them schedule posts easily, but also helps them raise brand awareness via our new White Label application.  With the White Label app, businesses can replace the “via Post Planner” footer with “via Your Brand” and link the footer to any website they choose.

Post Planner also helps marketers and PR experts increase their page’s exposure by giving them access to our huge Status Ideas database, which offers over 3,000 prewritten statuses, each designed to help increase EdgeRank.

On Facebook, creating the most engaging and consistent content is key, and Post Planner helps you achieve that.

Post Planner is unique among apps in many ways! It’s directly integrated to Facebook making it easy and simple to use. It’s a smart and complete product design offering a full service package: schedule your posts, repeat them, find powerful status ideas, maximize your branding.

Q3:    What are some best practices when it comes to the planning and development of content?

Easy: make sure you use Post Planner. 

Customers want to feel important. They want to know you’re listening to them. They want you to provide valuable information.  And they want exclusive incentives. But they don’t want to be bombarded with promotional offers or advertisements.  TV does that already.

So I have two content tips:

1) Provide useful content:  create a need that will get your community impatient to read your latest news, give them sexiness, and do not promote marketing messages over 20% of the time.

2) Be consistent:  it doesn’t have to be everyday (in fact what works well with one community may not work with another one, and vice-versa) but it should at least be steady.

Q4:    You mentioned you have a marketing background.  What made you decide to marry marketing and technology to develop your social media tool?

With technology invading any marketer’s daily activities (think websites rather than brochures, smartphones instead of faxes, emailings vs print mailings, e-shops complementing stores, QR codes replacing a business’s ID, etc.), I started a love affair with Facebook and leveraged its incredible power in its early years. As marketers, we see and have many tools available, but that doesn’t mean they’re all requirements for doing business. My vision was to provide a simple way to anticipate conversations and make the lives of Facebook users easier, and the combo marketing-technology came as a natural evolution.

Q5:    What advice can you give to other marketing and PR professionals who are interested in building a tool and launching it in the market?

Create a product that solves people’s problems!

Don’t go for the fanciest tool in the world.  And don’t just create a copycat tool.   Make sure you’re creating a product that cures the pain of customers and make their lives easier.

It doesn’t have to be designed for everyone, and in fact “a product that is designed for everyone barely reaches much of anyone” (Seth Godin).  But it needs to be clever and it has to offer smart features.

When it comes to launching it in the market, make sure you define the relevant channels first, and then listen for feedback to make your tool even smarter and better adapted to your user’s needs.  Listen, care and respond, so your customers feel important and can sense that you’re making their lives easier.

About Julie Cros … Co-Founder at Post Planner: www.postplanner.com Digital junkie, Social Media Big time, Life, Laughs, Love. Pro twitter: @PostPlanner – Personal: @LiveJulie.

I recently met Ruth Bazinet, director of media relations and social media in the Office of Public Affairs at Roger Williams University in Bristol, R.I. When we were on Twitter discussing a #PRStudChat mentoring project, Ruth sent over information on her PR internship program that really caught my eye.  The program was full of wonderful in office and remote opportunities for their interns, with incredible guidance and mentoring along the way.

I asked Ruth to answer a few questions for me. I thought the interview would provide professionals with ideas on how they can enhance their internship programs, and also show students what to look for when reviewing internship opportunities.

Here’s my Q&A with Ruth:

Q. You mentioned to me that one of the first things you say to students when they begin their internships is that you want them to “completely fail while working with you.” How do you help them to move beyond “failure” to success.

A. Students coming into our program understand that they will be doing real work and will be held accountable for meeting deadlines and completing projects. They realize this is their chance to make mistakes now “when the stakes aren’t so high.” When a mistake is made, the student is immediately alerted and we discuss what should have been done differently to avoid it in the future. We sometimes walk through alternate scenarios to see the issue at all angles. Since we carefully select our interns, most of the time they are very quick learners and develop at a steady pace. Those that are not able to do that are given more manageable tasks. Offering challenges suitable to the intern’s ability at that time will give them a rich experience from which everyone benefits.

Q. In your opinion, what makes your internship program different than other program for students?

A. Our PR intern program is not only intended to help provide students with a growth opportunity during the semester but also after they leave the program. They are also given opportunities to work directly with the media.

Q. Are there any requirements for students who want to participate in your program?

A.  Interns must be full-time undergraduate students. A prior internship is not necessary but we do prefer communications students who are interested in pursuing a career in public relations. Students who are motivated and articulate stand out fast.

Q. What do you think are the most valuable learning experiences for students when they participate in an internship program?

A. I speak individually with interns before entering our program to see what they wish to gain from the experience. There may be a particular industry they are looking to enter – like sports or technology – and we try to present opportunities for them to get that direct experience. However, there are also overarching learning lessons we want each intern to gain while in our office. Understanding basic business etiquette, media pitching, solid research skills (including building media lists and story background checks) and using social media for business are some of the most practical skills they can acquire.

The two most valuable experiences we want them to gain during the internship is to understand whether public relations is the right career for them and how to land their next job/internship should they choose to proceed. Taking the next step and helping the intern move ahead (rather than the what-can-you-do-for-me attitude) will not only strengthen the reputation of the intern program but will also build a strong professional network that benefits both the intern and the organization.

Q. What advice would you give to other professionals and organizations looking to set up an internship program for students?

A. Any organization interested in establishing an internship program needs to understand that there must be a sufficient commitment of resources and time in order to succeed. We update our reference documents each semester, hold training sessions throughout the year and meet with our interns regularly to discuss their progress. An office should definitely consider whether they have time to consistently invest in their intern program before initiating a program.

Additionally, be sure to list your program with the career offices of local colleges. Getting to know the career center director and communications professors helps secure strong candidates. I have found some really great interns using Twitter as well. The intelligent use of social media is a nice indicator of how they may interact with reporters and staff, and reveals their level of professionalism and motivation.

A little more about Ruth Bazinet:

As the Director of Media Relations and Social Media at Roger Williams University (RWU), Ruth Bazinet brings nearly a decade of experience in public relations and marketing to help share the university’s story with the world.

Prior to joining RWU in 2010, Ruth was a public relations consultant with a high-tech and higher education focus. While in this role, she successfully pitched product launches, corporate news and trend stories on behalf of her clients. In 2009 she was part of the small team that helped a fresh startup become Silicon Alley Insider’s Startup of the Year. In addition to her high-tech and higher education client base, Ruth also represented one of the largest vacuum metallizers in the world.

You may remember me writing about “A Year Without Newspapers,” which was an experiment by Adam Vincenzini. Adam’s challenge was to go an entire year without reading a newspaper. Last week, Paul Sutton introduced me to another challenging experiment and I think this one is just as tough, if not tougher to achieve.  Paul, who is the head of Social Communications at BOTTLE, began his experiment, #NoSearch, to see if he could stop using search engines for two months.  This is no easy task.  I know that personally, my day is filled with Google searches whether it’s for work or personally to find information.  When I learned about the experiment, I thought it would be interesting to interview Paul to find out what it’s like to go two months without using a search engine; no Google, Bing, Yahoo! or any other search engine between 1 June 2011 and 31 July 2011.

Here is my interview with Paul:

Q1:  How did you come up with the idea/experiment to stop using search engines for two months?

Believe it or not, the initial idea for #NoSearch came to me while I was on a train heading into London. In a carriage of perhaps 20 people, about 15 of them were engrossed in mobile devices of one kind or another – iPads, laptops, smartphones. It just struck me that all of these people – my friends, my contacts, me, you – we’re all totally reliant on what Google tells us. We have total trust in search results and maybe even blind faith in the results we get in search engines, and that gives them immense power over us and the way we perceive the world.

At the same time, working in online PR and social communications as I do, I’m all too aware that social networks enable us to share and find information like never before. We can research, ask friends and carry out polls in minutes.  It’s a form of ‘collective intelligence’, and that made me question whether we can get by online by forgoing search engines in favour of our online networks. After two weeks, the intrigue of the question hadn’t subsided so, quite simply, I decided to go and find out, settled on some rules and went Google cold turkey.

Q2: Do you think the experiment is harder or easier than you expected it to be?

There are two ways of looking at it. One the one hand, it’s actually pretty easy. I only have a moderately sized network (around 2500 Twitter followers, for example) but, as it turns out, they’re pretty knowledgeable and responsive. If I ask them a question, I normally get a response that either provides me with an answer or leads me to where I can find one. That, together with other information sources, means that I honestly haven’t missed Google at all. But on the other hand, it’s immensely frustrating. What used to take several seconds using a search engine now takes several minutes while I ask questions, look through blogs in my RSS reader or interrogate social bookmarking sites.

Q3: Now that you are not using search engines, what is your next best source(s) for news, information, etc?

Twitter. Hands down, my Twitter network is currently my lifeline. I’m connected to a whole bunch of great people who not only respond, but also know their stuff. They have access to a bank of information and they’re great at sharing it. Following that, I’m now seeing a real value in social bookmarking, a side of social media that, to be honest, I’ve never taken that seriously before. Delicious, Diigo and Stumbleupon hold such a wealth of valuable information, and while they can’t compete with Google for finding a website URL, they’re just as good for information.

Q4: Would you ever consider a couple of months without the Internet or use of your smartphone? How hard/easy do you think this experiment would be?

You must be mad! Funnily enough, my smartphone died this week and I was without it for about 24 hours until I got hold of another handset. It felt like I’d had an arm removed. It’s true to say that I *heart* my HTC. I use it constantly for keeping up to date with my friends and networks, reading blogs, knowing where I’m going and what I’m doing, getting places; there’s no way I could give it up now. As for the Internet, again, not in a million years. Even without the ability to search it, it’s always there and always accessible. How on earth did we ever manage without the web?

Q5:  Do you think that we are over connected with all of our online and social communications?

Great question. It’s an area that #NoSearch has brought to the fore in my mind and, coincidentally, I wrote a blog post called ‘Are We Over-Connected’ just last week. I think it’s all getting a bit crazy, the number of networks, platforms and tools out there now. And when you don’t have a search engine to cut through all the dross, it makes finding relevant information harder than it should be as it’s all so spread out. I’m starting to think that we’re socially over-exposed and that maybe it’s about time we cut down which platforms we use, who we connect with and what we share.

It’s still very early days for #NoSearch and I have another six weeks to go before I draw any firm conclusions, but I’ve already started to assess all the blogs I read, look at the people I follow on Twitter and evaluate all of the tools and platforms I use with a view to consolidating them. Bigger isn’t always better.

You can follow the #NoSearch project on Posterous, Twitter and Audioboo. Paul Sutton is Head of Social Communications at BOTTLE, where he’s responsible for devising creative social media strategies to meet commercial client objectives. He blogs at www.thesocialweb.co.uk and can be found on Twitter as @ThePaulSutton

My 16 year-old-daughter first introduced me to Tumblr when she told me that she wanted to start her own blog.  She used to spend countless hours on MySpace checking out bands, on YouTube sharing funny videos and she used her Facebook profile to keep in touch with many of her friends after we moved from North Jersey to Central Jersey a few years ago. I would say that YouTube and Facebook are still among her favorite social sites. However, Tumblr has come onto her radar and clearly captured her attention.  Based on her behavior, Tumblr is her new social media habit.

For those not familiar with Tumblr, it’s an easy platform to express your thoughts and share information through a variety of formats including text, photo, chat, links, audio and video.  Tumblr is recognized today as a platform somewhere in between a WordPress blog and Twitter stream, which lets you share media in short form or as “media snacks.”

I’ve been investigating Tumblr to see exactly what it is that makes the platform so special.  Here’s what my 16 year old has to say about Tumblr:

• Tumblr is a place where you can express what you like and how you feel.
• Tumblr is about yourself, above everything else … it can encompass all that you do and what you want.  Although, some people might criticize, there are so many more supporters; the community is generally supportive of what you post.
• You can find a lot of people with similar interests. When someone reblogs a picture that I like, I look at their blog to find other things that interest me.
• Tumblr is better than Facebook…anyone can have a Facebook, but with Tumblr it goes deeper into your personality.
• I’m on Twitter too. Although my Tumblr is linked to my Twitter, I spend more time on my Tumblr dashboard.  It’s all right there for me, and it’s so much easier to use.
• Tumblr is the more complex version of Twitter, yet, at the same time, it’s easier to use and manage.
• Twitter is something you do when you’re out…”eating with my friend …” It’s what’s happening now and Tumblr is your online journal.
• Twitter is like a memo pad and Tumblr is like a daily journal.
• It’s the most addictive thing ever!

Here is a quick snapshot from Compete comparing Posterous (another short form blogging platform) to Tumblr, with respect to unique visitors and visits to the sites:

Unique Visitors:

Source: Compete.com

Monthly Visits:

Source: Compete.com

As you can see, there has been a significant increase in traffic and unique visits to Tumblr over the past year.  As communications professionals, it’s our job is to understand the market and to identify where various audiences congregate.  Tumblr is definitely a place of interest and focus for the Millennials.  Based on the information from February 2011 (see chart below), Tumblr is poised for growth as a simple microblogging platform.

Source: 1WD.CO

Public Relations TV, better know as PRTV, was founded by Harrison Kratz of Kratz PR.  Harrison hosts a series of interviews and webisodes every week to educate public relations students and professionals, and to provide a good resource for information about the PR industry. I was interested in learning more about PRTV and caught up with Harrison to ask him a few questions. Here’s our Q&A:

Q. Why did you launch PRTV?

A. I started PRTV mainly out of a thirst for learning.  I love learning from others about PR and social media and I figured this would be a great way to not only learn a great deal, but also allow others to learn just as much.  This project has allowed me to meet and communicate with some amazing people and has taken me closer to being the influencer I hope to be in the near future.

Q. What are your goals for PRTV in 2011 and moving forward?

A. I think PRTV is going to grow quickly.  We are already scheduling interviews with professionals in Europe and I am planning multiple trips to cities around the country to interview new influencers and extend our network.  I don’t really have an idea if it has the potential to grow into a business, but I just hope it becomes a go to source for information in Public Relations.  I’m very confident that it will be by the end of 2011.

Q.Who inspired you to develop a PR broadcast channel?

A. Brian Solis’ interview with Katie Couric lit a light bulb for me.  I watched that and thought, wow I can do that.  Maybe not to the extent of interviewing Katie Couric, or with the same production value, but I definitely could produce content and interviews for my online community.

Q. How do you think PRTV will help PR students and professionals?

A. We can learn a great deal from the influencers in our industry through blog posts, twitter, and books, but I feel much more connected to that person when I know the voice behind the tweets and blog posts.  These interviews will allow our industry to learn more about the influencers and stars in PR.  Not to mention, our interviews have a lot of content anyone in our industry can learn from.

Check out a few of the latest interviews on PRTV.  Here’s is a link to my two part interview with Harrison.  Enjoy!

http://kratzpr.com/prtv-interview-with-deirdre-breakenridge

Tim Reeth, Founder of Blasterous

Like most PR and communications professionals, I’ve been paying attention to the location based companies and how this space is growing and capturing the attention of our brands.  I met Tim Reeth, founder of Blasterous and took an immediate interest in what his company was doing with its location based services.  Here’s my disclosure…I have no affiliation with Blasterous.  The company is not a client.  Tim is simply a new friend that I met on Twitter.

For those of you who don’t know Tim, he created Blasterous, a hyper-local service connecting people to the places they live, work or visit.  Tim is also the CEO and Founder of Interoctavo, LLC. A software development company which builds consumer internet and social media applications.  Interoctavo products include Blasterous, Yafalla, LocalHow and Zozzer.

Prior to founding Blasterous, Tim oversaw Product Management and User Experience for Friendster, the first social network.  Prior to Friendster, Tim work as a user experience and usability professional with such companies as Yahoo!, eBay, Amazon, Siebel Systems and a variety of start-ups.

I thought that you might be interested in learning about Blasterous and to see how this company focuses on a local communications platform and the privacy of its users.  Here is my Q&A with Tim about Blasterous and the growing location based market.

1. What is Blasterous and how is it different than other location based platforms including Facebook Connect and Foursquare?

Blasterous is a hyper-local communication platform.  Our focus is to deliver meaningful local information to users in real-time so they can act on that information.  In order to offer a meaningful experience, we have made the physical radius around the user as important a connection point as any personal relationship – as if your Zip Code was your first “friend” whereever you go.

There are times that I care more about what’s going on around me, even by strangers, than I do about what a former college dorm mate in another state is up too.  Therefore, our platform is designed to make sharing and discovering what’s going on in your area easy and intuitive.

Of course if people want to share that information with friends and/or family they can.  To help facilitate this, we’ve built many social features into our product; all designed to enhance the local experience. Our users can make connections, create and manage private lists, share photos, make recommendations, engage in one-to-one or one-to-many communication. Our belief is social interactions will occur naturally either on our network or in the physical world as a result of engaging online at the local level.

We’re not about badges or long lists of followers.  So, while some services want to expose to the world where you’ve checked-in or want to distribute your network and activity across the web, we’re singularly focused on providing a simple solution for sharing and discovering what’s going on around you; all in the context of time and place.  For us, it’s all about building tools that make it easy to participate in the stream of local activity, either as a consumer, contributor or both.

2. You recently launched Blasterous Business Pages. Why is it important for brands to have a presence on location networks and what do marketing and PR professionals need to know?

Reaching your customer in their local community has been a standard marketing practice for decades – a radio spot in NYC may not run in LA.  But in the context of online advertising, a missing component of the marketing mix has been finding customers online and locally.

So last week we quietly released an update to our Places product called Blasterous Business Pages.  Businesses of any size can now easily add their listing to our directory or claim their business if it’s already included in our directory of roughly 15M business.  It’s a simple single page registration form and verification process, allowing brands to get up and running in minutes.

Because Blasterous is hyper-local, larger brands can execute campaigns at the street level and because our platform delivers information in real-time those campaigns can realize immediate responses; enabling businesses to quickly optimize any marketing effort.

A national brand can run a campaign for a specific duration and time it to coincide with what’s going on in that area. Brands may empower managers to come up with and run their own campaigns, allowing the business to make decisions daily on how to drive business to their venue.  For example, a national pizza chain may run a campaign to correspond to the San Francisco Columbus Day festival tailored to the festival audience.

Brands don’t have to run campaigns to participate at the local level.  A business or an agent of the business can engage in online conversations and add value to the community, thereby staying top of mind with locals.  For instance, wouldn’t it be great if a real-estate agent suggested avoiding a specific location due to a break in a water main?

3. How does Blasterous address privacy concerns for consumers?

At the heart of Blasterous is user privacy and control.  In developing all the location based functionality, we also identified an opportunity to help people and businesses connect with their own networks and easily create private conversations with a select audience of any size.  A lot like a multi-author blog, our list product provides users private forums through which to connect and converse.

I, for example, have a “Family” list, which I use to share personal information such as photos of family members, travel plans and itineraries; most of which I am not comfortable sharing outside of the context of that list.  Only those people I add to that list can contribute to it or see its contents. I also have a “Co-workers” list – each list is distinct, can be managed independently and the content and relationships are all siloed.  Lists can also be used by businesses who may want to offer one group of customers something different than another; for instance specials as part of a loyalty program.

4. What will the future look like in the location space and what can our brands look forward to in this area?

The world is shifting quickly to “on demand”.  More and more information will be available and increasingly close to real-time delivery.  Tools will need to be able to sift through the real-time stream and pluck out the bits of relevant information and surface it to people when they want it.

For brands, we provide the targetedness of local and regional marketing with the efficiency of online media. With real-time analytics on real-time campaigns, brands will be able to tune a campaign on the fly, without costs associated with re-running a traditional campaign.  Brands can become more creative and responsive as they compete for customers.

For customers, we’ll be more connected to our local area and less likely to hear about something at the Monday-morning-water-cooler that we would have loved to have done, had we only known about it.

With Blasterous, information will be accessible to people on demand, who will receive that information at the moment they are seeking it. Local is a big bucket and is where this on demand concept is most interesting.  At least for us.

A little more about Blasterous:

Founded in September 2009, anyone can sign up for Blasterous and participate in sharing or discovering local activities and events. Blasterous is a privately held company and is headquartered in Burlingame, Calif. For more information, visit www.blasterous.com or email info@blasterous.com.

Here’s my third and final interview at the the Mercedes-Benz Bridgehampton Polo Challenge on Saturday, August 28, 2010.  Mikinzie Stuart, Account Coordinator at SHIFT Communications chatted with me on how to make the transition from PR student to PR professional.  The video comes to you live from the SWAGG VIP tent.