One of my most popular posts last year was my summary of 2008 trend lists. I’m a little late this year, but better late than never =) When I look back at my three trends, it seems odd that I selected the growth of blogomerates, social media connections for PR and long tail PR. To me, these seem almost second nature! So what do I think will be top trends for 2009? Here are my top three:  . Brands that participate in conversations will thrive: Ever more so than ever, the need to participate in conversations with your community/customers is more important. del.icio.us MORE >>

Help A Reporter Out. Help A Report Out (or Haro).com com  is a free version of Profnet. Started by Peter Shankman, this great service is growing greatly based on word of mouth. Frankly, if it’s free and a way to pitch stories to journalists, us PR folks are on it faster than flies on shit. So it saddened me when I saw this in a recent Haro newsletter:  . This morning, I got a pitch (as did MANY of my key journalists on HARO) about the rumor that Matthew Broderick cheated on Sarah Jessica Parker, and offering me a celebrity life coach to talk about it. This is MY list. Don’t like it? MORE >>

I have a page about how to pitch a blogger , but I'm realizing that this goes beyond pitching bloggers vs. traditional media. It's how do we pitch people in general?  . The traditional standards still apply: get to know the person you're pitching, understand his or her preferences for pitching, and make sure you're pitching something relevant. The questions now is, which is better? Twitter, facebook, linked in, RSS feeds, etc.  . I've seen a lot of writing around new ways of pitching. In a first of a series of postings, I will look at different ways to "pitch" reporters and bloggers. del.icio.us MORE >>

Ken Molay of The Webinar Blog poses an interesting question - are our assumptions about when to schedule a webinar rational?  .  . Currently, most webinars are scheduled from Tuesday - Thursday to capture the largest number of viewers. But why are Monday and Friday ignored? Ken wants to hold this survey to see what you - people who attend webinars - truly think.  . Please take a moment to fill out the survey. Though "unscientific" I think this will provide some interesting perspective about the timing of webinars.  . wished Ken had included one question asking about industry or role. del.icio.us MORE >>

This week's Weekly Articles looks at a variety of topics from Twitter, search to spamming bloggers. Another interesting article highlights lead scoring benefits and how sometimes a bad pitch isn't really a bad pitch. You can click on the Weekly Articles tag for previous issues or subscribe to the Weekly Articles Feed.  . If you feel that you have an article that would fit in the weekly articles, leave a comment and I'll check it our for the following week's digest. Enjoy.  . Tweets for You - David Berkowitz of Search Insider does a great job reviewing tools that can help you search on Twitter. MORE >>