SOMEWHAT FRANK

BuzzGain To Help Companies With Online PR

If you are a bootstrapping company or brand looking for ways to join various online conversation and promote your product you might want to look at BuzzGain. BuzzGain is a do-it-yourself PR and marketing solution that just launched into public beta today. It empowers businesses to identify online communities such as blogs, Flickr, Youtube, Twitter, and also traditional media so that companies can then reach out and share their story. BuzzGain prices range from $99 to $999 per month depending on the revenue of the company. BuzzGain was co-founded by my friend, Brian Solis and Mukund Mohan. Check out TechCrunch's further analysis of BuzzGain.

hi5 Gets A New Communications Director

hi5, a fast growing social networking site, has just landed a new director of communications in Adriana Gascoigne. hi5 is a social networking site for Tweens, users in their teens and 30's, and is among the top-10 global social networks. Based on the June comScore Media Metrix worldwide figures released in June, hi5 grew 79% in the first half of 2008. Adriana made her plans to move to hi5 public via her blog yesterday as she decided she wanted to:

"to build castles in, make new playmates, dig to discover new treasures – most importantly, as Frank Gruber has stated several times, “Have fun!”

You are exactly right Adriana. You have to have fun in life because life is too short, because we die. I am happy you realize that and are taking action. Congrats to Adriana on the new gig with hi5. The social networking space is definitely an interesting and exploding territory and I am sure Adriana's expertise will make a positive impact on hi5's direction which already appears to be up.

Live Video: Personality Not Included Q&A

Watch and interact live over the Web! Today at 7 p.m. EST, I am chatting with Washington, DC local marketing/PR guru Rohit Bhargava the author of the new book, Personality Not Included: Why Companies Lose Their Authenticity And How Great Brands Get it Back. I am excited to be able to chat with Rohit tonight as part of the Network Solutions powered event that SOMEWHAT FRANK teamed up to host.   

I met Rohit last year as he moderated a panel that I sat on with fellow social media experts, Gary Vaynerchuk and Geoff Livingston. You can watch that video here, as I recorded it from a video camera mounted to my head. Interestingly, my three colleagues have all since published books - now doesn't that make me feel like a slacker. :) 

Personality Not Included is different from your typical marketing book and we are going to discuss it at this event. The actual event is sold out but you can watch it below thanks to BlogTV.

Now Is Gone: Video Interview with Brian Solis

I got a chance to sit down with Future Works and Bub.blico.us founder and PR 2.0 blogger Brian Solis to chat about the book that he assisted Geoff Livingston in authoring - Now Is Gone.

The book which retails for only $10 on Amazon.com (less than you spend on lattes in a week) is positioned to be a good primer for anyone that is thinking about the new media landscape from big companies to entrepreneurs.