Six Lessons from Starting a New Podcast

Next installment of "Learning about Social Media from Your Desk."

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve coordinated a new podcast series for my organization. We launched in September and are still very much in the early stages, but it’s coming along quite well. We’ve received positive responses, growth in listenership and even an award.

Naturally, I’ve learned a few things along the way. Since there’s tons more to learn, I’m going to share a list about getting started. And these are coming from the perspective of an organizational podcast.

1. Do your homework. Listening to a variety of other podcasts can help you decide which format and style is best for you. Plus, listening to podcasts about podcasting will help you learn about trends, what to expect, setting realistic goals and new technologies. You don’t have to know all the technical details, but it helps to know what to ask for.

2. Start with a plan. It doesn’t have to be 100 pages long. But the basics are important – purpose, prospective audience, etc. Plus, having the plan on paper can help you get support from higher up and the resources you need. I posted the outline of my plan a few months ago.

3. Getting outside expertise to get you started is priceless. This may sound contradictory to my first point, but do not – I repeat – do not wait until you know everything there is to know. If you wait for that, you’ll never get started. It’s ok to learn as you go. Our first episode doesn’t even have the intro music.

4. “Low barrier to entry” refers to money not time. It’s taking us about 10 hours to produce a 20-25 minute podcast every two weeks. This includes the time for planning and conducting the interview, editing, creating shownotes, writing corresponding web text and posting in online. And I haven’t even started spending real time on promotion.

5. Podcasting requires easy approval processes. It’s one thing to have several levels of supervisors word-smith a printed piece, but you can’t produce a podcast that way. My directors don’t hear our podcast until it’s online.

6. Integrate the podcast into some facet of the organization’s work. Don’t let it be your hobby at work. If you want it to last, it has to relate to the organization’s goals.

Several of these learnings have been advised by other podcasters, but now I can say I’ve experienced them firsthand.

Podcamp in San Antonio May 19

Speaking of podcasting… If you are even remotely interested in learning more about podcasting, this is an opportunity you cannot pass by. Podcamp San Antonio is a FREE “unconference” about new media. And it’s right here in our own backyard.

Don’t let the “unconference” label throw you off. I’ve never been to one, but I hear that since the participants decide what they want to learn about, the chances of you actually learning useful stuff are much higher than a traditional conference. And you don't have to be a podcaster to get lots out of it.

Check it out and be there. And then pleeeease tell me all about it.

I’m sorry to say I won’t be following my own advice. But I am thrilled to say that my family will be participating in the March of Dimes WalkAmerica in San Antonio that day.

PR- and Communications-Related Podcasts

Next installment of "Learning about Social Media from Your Desk."

I promised to direct you to some podcasts that you may want to try out. I am a regular listener to each of the shows listed below. They provide very useful and entertaining information about social media.

For Immediate Release: The Hobson and Holtz Report
The twice-weekly podcast of Neville Hobson, ABC, and Shel Holtz, ABC, “a pair of communication professionals who think they have something to say.” Hobson is based in Wokingham, Berkshire, England, while Holtz is located in Concord, California, in the United States. This podcast is updated on Mondays and Thursdays.

This is the one everyone will tell you to start with. And I strongly agree.
http://www.forimmediaterelease.biz/index.php/weblog/about_us/

Trafcom News Podcast
Podcasts for people who care about communicating with employees, customers, prospects and the world, hosted by Donna Papacosta.

Donna focuses many of her shows on podcasting itself. If you feel lost by jargon in other podcasts, know that Donna is clear and easy to follow.
http://trafcom.typepad.com/podcast/

Inside PR
A weekly Canadian public relations podcast hosted by Terry Fallis and David Jones.

This podcast focuses on the world of PR firms. It also gives advice to new PR professionals. Even though I have never worked for a PR agency, I still find this podcast useful and entertaining.
http://www.insidepr.ca/

New Comm Road Podcast
Launched in May 2006, explores how new media tools are changing communication in business, in the media and in our everyday lives. Hosted by Bryan Person.

Bryan gives easy to follow instructions on how to use different social media tools. Hel’ll also keep you up-to-date on the latest tools. (Disclosure: Bryan consults with me for my organization’s podcast – award-winning podcast.)
http://www.newcommroad.com/

On the Record...Online
The story behind the story as reporters from the mainstream media and newsmakers discuss how information technology is changing media news and entertainment, and business to business and consumer marketing. Hosted by Eric Schwartzman.

Eric’s podcasts give you insight into the business and media perspective of social media. I have no idea how he lands such high-level guests.
http://ontherecordpodcast.com/pr/otro/

There are quite a few more that are top-notch in our field. Readers, now’s the time for you to share your favorites!

Understanding the Podcasting Listener

Next installment of "Learning about Social Media from Your Desk."

So if the first rule in communications is to know your audience, then here is a little info on podcast listeners.

• Podcast listeners expect authenticity and transparency.
• They expect informal style of conversation and not heavily polished productions.
• They refuse to be sold to.
• They will listen a long time if the content is interesting and relevant to them.
• They may pause and restart several times when listening to a single podcast.
• They will go back and listen to past episodes they missed.
• Regular listeners will feel part of a community, especially if they share feedback and it is included in the podcast.

You may find that your listeners are your most vocal advocates. They have gone out of their way to hear your message. They likely have networks of people who trust them.

A Big Thank You!

This semester has been absolutely crazy for me and the PRSSA Chapter at UTSA. We were able to plan and execute two events that had never been done for our Chapter.

In March we had our Shadow Days Month: Learning from the Pros. This allowed our members the opportunity to shadow PR professionals from the PRSA Chapter of San Antonio for a day. While it went off smoothly, I am hoping to have some comments from the members who participated by early May. As you may know April is the final month of the semester and our members are very busy with getting ready for finals , etc. We want to thank the 23 professionals who donated their time during this special event. We look forward to being able to schedule a shadow day month for the month of October. Keep an eye out for more information in the months to come.

On April 21 we hosted our first PRSSA/PRSA Pre-professional workshop. While it was held on the first weekend of FIESTA, we still had a group of very interested students who learned some excellent tools to utilize when building a portfolio, writing a resume, writing PSAs, feature stories, putting together media kits and writing press releases. We would like to thank Jennifer Milikien, Director of Marketing and Public Relations for St. Mary's Hall; Elizabeth "Beth" Graham, Public Relations Manager for the San Antonio Public Library; Cassandra Miranda, Senior Director of Cause Marketing Initiatives, American Heart Association Texas Affiliate and PRSSA Assistant Liaison for the PRSA Chapter of San Antonio; and Robert "Bob" Sheldon, Director of Public Relations for Creative Communications Cusultants, Inc. and
PRSSA Liaison for the PRSA Chapter of San Antonio for donating their time and expertise on a Saturday.

Benefits of Podcasting

Next installment of "Learning about Social Media from Your Desk."

Eric Schwartzman of On the Record Online podcast fame posted a list of benefits of podcasting (supported by considerable research) on his blog, Spinfluencer (April 18, 2006 post).

• Podcasts allow listeners to time-shift and place-shift media consumption
• Podcasts are 100 percent efficient, since episodes are only downloaded by listeners on an opt-in basis
• Podcasts are easily accessible to a global audience that is not defined by geographic boundaries
• Podcasts are heard by a niche, influential audience
• Podcasts afford organizations the ability to leverage electronic programming without an outside news media filter
• Podcasts are the most cost effective electronic media distribution channel available

Then I created my own list from an organizational perspective, which echoes his.
• We can provide information quickly to targeted audiences.
• We can provide information directly to targeted audiences.
• We can make information more understandable and compelling through a verbal means.
• We can provide timely information to audience members who do not have time to read our print materials.
• We can expand on information contained in our printed and other communications.
• We can build a network of engaged audience members.
• We can further promote services.

Podcasting to Your Niche

Next installment of "Learning about Social Media from Your Desk."

Last time we covered a bit about the narrowness of podcast audiences. It is in fact this narrowness that appeals to PR folk. Let’s look at a traditional method and a new method of communicating.

Let’s say you want to promote a festival in Texas. At that festival, there will be a barbequing contest. The proceeds will support your non-profit. In the old days (last month), you might send out a news release, make your director available for interviews, and get a famous barbeque expert on a morning television show. For each newspaper story, you’ll report the circulation knowing that only a fraction of the subscribers actually looked at the paper that day, a fraction of those saw the story that mentioned your event, a fraction of those remembered the story five minutes later, and an even smaller fraction entertained the idea of attending.

And, in today’s world, you may still use these tactics. But you could add a podcast series leading up to the event. It could include interviews with expert barbequers. And you could promote your podcast on other popular barbeque podcasts, like Barbeque Secrets.

In this scenario, you’ll be reaching one of your target audiences directly. And they will be people who asked to receive your message. Imagine.

So your homework today is to find a podcast about a topic that interests you. One that is not work related. To do this, go to a podcast directory and do some topical searches. You can usually listen to an excerpt before you decide to subscribe. Some places to look include: iTunes podcast search, Google (type in a topic with the word podcast after it), and Yahoo podcast search. There are hundreds of directories. These will be enough to get started.

You will probably find many that don’t scratch your itch. But keep looking. Let us know what you find.

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

So I was filling out an online survey the other day about applications of social media for organizational communicators. I believe it was hosted by Ragan. And I found one of the questions bothersome. Here was the question:

7. What barriers do you face in using social media in your work?
a. Lack of executive support
b. Lack of employee interest
c. Budget
d. Lack of understanding about the use of social media
e. Lack of measurement
f. Fear of change
g. Fear of loss of control
h. Legal concerns
i. Fear that employees will waste time

Why is there no recognition that there may be – how shall I put it – smart reasons for not using social media or certain elements of social media?

For example, perhaps one reason is that the communicator has not found ways to integrate social media that are appropriate to the mission or goals of the organization. You can understand social media in your sleep and still not have yet found an application that will support the organization’s goals.

Or, perhaps the issue is that the organization’s key audience is not using social media. Now I know some people think everyone is online. But they aren’t. What if your audience is comprised people who have no access to the Internet at all?

It’s not just about the survey (which probably should have at least had an open-ended option for “other”). It just struck a chord with me because I’ve been noticing the same tone in communications podcasts and blog posts.

Sure, these reasons likely are what’s holding some companies back. I don’t dispute that.

But opting out doesn’t automatically have to mean you are afraid or ignorant. And it’s a bit arrogant for early adopters to make that assumption.

In my own case, my organization is podcasting. There are specific strategic reasons that it is a good tactic for us. Blogging, on the other hand, is about for us as appropriate as renting billboards. But I don’t hear anyone calling us scaredy-cats for not using billboards.

Don’t get me wrong, I think PR folk have a responsibility to their employers and clients to learn about social media. Otherwise, we can’t give good counsel for when to use elements of social media and when not to. Social media can be the best tool ever for some strategies, but it is not the million-dollar answer to everything.

Sampling a Short Podcast

Next installment of "Learning about Social Media from Your Desk."

If you’ve been with this series from the beginning in January, then you’ve already listened to some podcasts. And I will soon suggest several others. But today, we’re going to look at one in particular. It is a podcast produced by Advertising Age, called the "Why It Matters" audio show. It is produced weekly, and is usually less than 10 minutes.

Your homework is to subscribe to this podcast and listen to at least two episodes.

One thing you’ll see is how a podcast can supplement a printed publication. It can also draw listeners to the printed or online publication.

You’ll also get to see the format of a professionally-produced podcast. By professional, I mean created by a large company likely with plenty of resources. Yet, there’s no fancy music lead in, no promotions and no advertising. It gets right down to business.

Many podcasts do use a touch of music for certain purposes, and others include a short promotion (several of the NPR podcasts do this to recognize a sponsor). But they are not intrusive if they want to keep their listeners.

For the Ad Age podcast, you can guess that there is a specific audience that doesn’t have time for pleasantries. This is the most significant fact about podcasts. They have extremely narrow audiences. In the old way of mass communications thinking, that’s a bad thing. But today, we understand the value of targeting our messages.

So listen to this one and share what you observe.

Lesson Three: The World of Podcasting

Lesson three of "Learning about Social Media from Your Desk."

Now we’re getting into an area that I love. I’ve been listening to podcasts for a little over a year and producing a podcast for my office since September. Podcasting has only been around 31 months, but already, 12 percent of Internet users are listening (see story at podCast411).

So just what is a podcast? Well, many make comparisons to radio shows. But that’s only partially true.

How podcasts are like radio shows.
* You listen to them.

How podcasts are not like radio shows.
* You listen to what you want.
* You listen when you want.

The advantage of audio is that you can be doing other stuff while you listen, like driving or exercising. And yet, audio still has a unique intimacy.

Despite the name, podcast, most listeners listen through their computers. Others use their iPods or other kinds of mp3 players. The cool thing is, that when you find a program that you like, you can subscribe to it, for free, using RSS. You don’t have to go back to the program’s web site to see if a new episode has been released. Instead, it comes to you. It’s the RSS feature that turns an audio file into a podcast.

There’s a great article at Entrepreneur's Journey, “What is a Podcast and How Can I Use One?” if you want a bit more detail.

There are several “podcatchers” out there. But the most used nowadays, by far, is iTunes by Apple. It’s free. It’s not limited to Macs. And while it works best with iPods than with other players, it’s fine for listening from your computer.

So your first homework assignment this month is to set up an iTunes account if you don’t already have one.

Krause’s English 328 Web Site and Blog has easy step-by-step instructions, "How to set up iTunes and an RSS Feed.”

World’s Oldest Paper in Circulation Goes Print-Free

About a month ago or so, I saw a tiny item in my local paper about a newspaper in Sweden that will no longer be printed. It didn’t shut down though. It now provides its news only online. No more above-the-fold stories. No more ink-smudged fingers. No more coin-operated newspaper stands.

Today, in order to read the Postoch Inrikes Tidningar newspaper, you have to have a computer.

This was the world’s oldest paper still in circulation. It was founded in 1645 by Sweden’s Queen Kristina. Yes, you read that right, 1645.

I know times have changed. And I’m not saying this was a bad decision or good decision. It’s not my place. It just seems like there should be a moment of silence or something.

Getting Acquainted with the Blogs -- Review

Lesson Two Review – Learning About Social Media from Your Desk

This ends our second lesson on Learning About Social Media from Your Desk. Below is a review of this lesson, in case you are among those who just found out about this tutorial.

Again, I urge you to leave a comment and tell about what you tried, questions you had or still have, or what you learned. It’ll help others.

1. Lesson Two: Get Acquainted with the Blogs (Wednesday, February 07, 2007)
First assignment: Read some blogs. Leave a comment and let other readers know what blogs you like best.

2. Monitoring Blogs without Going Crazy (Sunday, February 18, 2007)
Assignment: Set up a free account with one of these services to monitor blogs.

3. First Reason for Monitoring Blogs for Public Relations – And a Word About Reporting (Sunday, February 25, 2007)
Assignment: Set up some RSS searches for your organization.

4. Second Reason for Monitoring Blogs for Public Relations (Sunday, March 04, 2007) Assignment: Test out some searches using terms related to your organization or a client. Compare the results you get from different search terms and different search services.

5. Third Reason for Monitoring Blogs for Public Relations (Thursday, March 08, 2007)
In this new world of social media, the number of blog posts is pretty trivial. It’s all about the conversation.

6. Resources for Learning about the Blogosphere for PR Folk (Thursday, March 29, 2007)

Resources for Learning about the Blogosphere for PR Folk

Next installment of "Learning about Social Media from Your Desk."

As we wrap up this two-month lesson about blogs, I have listed some resources for you below. We spent two months on this topic because there is so much to cover. And we will actually come back to it later on to focus on blogger relations more specifically. The resources below are in no particular order.

1. "Introduction to Blogs" (I mentioned this one in a Friday, June 02, 2006, post)
The full title is: Introduction to Blogs: A quick guide to understanding and maximizing communication efforts in the blogosphere. This five-page document by Bacon’s Information Inc., discusses four reasons blogs have gained popularity, four general types of blogs, tips for working with blog writers, tips for monitoring the blogosphere, and tips using blogs as a marketing tool. While not being as comprehensive as some of the other resources I’ve found, this is a quick-read and good as an introduction (as the title indicates).

2. Waggener Edstrom Worldwide has several useful resources that I listed in a Monday, July 17, 2006, post, including: Are You Listening: Understanding the Blogosphere from a Communications Perspective (Part I) and Engaging the Blogosphere: Creating Connections and Fueling Conversations (Part II) (in pdf).

3. Online Tutorial Introduces You to Social Media (from my Tuesday, August 01, 2006 post). Capture the Conversation has posted on their web site a set of tutorials that are really cool. If you’re waiting for someone to show you how, you can stop waiting. These tutorials range from about three minutes to 10 and give you basic info on how to use a particular tool and why. Here are some related topics they’ve created tutorials for: How to Post a Comment on Blogs, Receiving Blog Trackbacks, Strategic Blog Commenting, Subscribing to a Blog via RSS Feed, and Setting Up a Technorati Account.

Next week, we’ll start a new topic: Podcasts!

2007 PRSA President Outlines Her Goals

Today, I had a chance to sit down to lunch with PRSA San Antonio's President for 2007 Fran Stephenson. I asked her about her goals for the organization as she serves in the role of president for 2007:

1. Building on the success of the Del Oro award program
2. Launching the Marilyn Potts Endowment Fund
3. Professional development and the strength of our programs

Listen to what she has to say in our first ever PRSA-SA Video Cast, maybe we will do more of these in the future:

Tags: PRSA|San Antonio|Professional Development|PR|Public Relations|Public Relations|PR|San Antonio|Texas|MYPRPRO

Remember the Basics – Paying Attention to Avoid Going Up in Smoke

Locals are well aware of the pesky mulch fire just outside of San Antonio. The fire began on Christmas and still is burning. Officials have argued about who will pay the millions of dollars it is taking to put it out – before trying to put it out. Air quality experts have been arguing with water quality experts about which is more important. And the rest of us have been coughing and wheezing back and forth to the doctor. School children and local residents have even been relocated. Experts have been assembling from across the state.

During the same time, I’ve been painfully reminded that while learning about new media, you still have to tend to the old. Beginning at about the same time as the mulch fire, our chapter web site has been “under the weather” as well. The web-based editing tool we’d been using started having trouble, and the software company wanted us or our web host to by a service agreement before they would help fix the problem. Which of course we refused to do. So our web host has been looking for a new program and agreed to make our edits for us. But they’ve got bigger fish to fry and have kind-of forgotten about us. In the meantime, visitors in March were seeing promotions for an event in early February.

Wow, the local PR association can’t even keep its web site up to date. Just like the mulch fire, no one is at fault (except for the match-holder). But it can’t go on.

So this week, we set up a temporary web page using Google’s cool page builder tool, which is in beta, and set up a redirect.

We are also taking steps to create a whole new web site. This was actually already in the works, which is why we weren’t yelling at the web host to find new software faster. The new site should be ready in a couple of months. It will include new features like a directory of local PR firms, information on what our local PRSSA (student) chapter is up to at UTSA, and a section on our chapter’s community service.

It will also enable us to ramp up our blog to include basic tools like tagging and displaying photos. It’ll be like a breath of fresh air!

Nominate a PR Professional in the San Antonio Area

You have four workdays left to nominate a colleague for a Del Oro Individual Award! The deadline for sending your nomination letter by email is the end of Thursday, March 15, 2007.

The Del Oro Awards are individual awards, recognizing leading public relations practitioners in the following areas:
• Tex Taylor Lifetime Achievement,
• Public Relations Professional of the Year,
• Community Service, and
• Horizon (recognizing a young PR professional "rising star").

There is no entry fee for the Del Oro individual awards. All it takes is a good letter of nomination! Details and entry guidelines are online at the chapter's web site.

If you feel someone you know is deserving, write down why and send in a nomination. Your colleague can't win otherwise!

Third Reason for Monitoring Blogs for Public Relations

Next installment of "Learning about Social Media from Your Desk"

The third reason in public relations to monitor blogs is to know what online conversations are related to your industry or company. In media relations, you probably report media coverage and group it by the event or whatever that started a set of coverage. But it pretty much stops there.

In this new world of social media, the number of blog posts is pretty trivial. It’s all about the conversation.

So when you are monitoring by post and tag searches and find relevant results, don’t think of them as a stream of unconnected mentions. Keep an eye on things like: the volume and content of comments, the links included in the post and the trackbacks (inbound links), and blog posts that mention other related blog posts. Go and track those links. Notice the direction of each conversation.

Then, you’ll need to decide when and how to join in the conversation. You can add comments to blog posts of the more influential bloggers. But do so judiciously. Do not try to sell something (even an idea). Be open about who you represent (this is really, really, really important). Express gratitude. Offer information. Gently provide corrections to errors.

Joining the conversation is important, but as a public relations professional, you have a special responsibility in how you go about it.

Second Reason for Monitoring Blogs for Public Relations

Next installment of "Learning about Social Media from Your Desk" (I know it’s a new month, and we’re supposed to be moving to a new topic. But we’re going to stay on the topic of blogs for a bit.)

The second reason to monitor blogs is to know what certain bloggers are saying about your industry. To get started, you need to identify which bloggers you want to watch. By ego-surfing regularly, you may start to see which bloggers are focusing your topics of interest (pro, con or otherwise). You will also see which ones are most influential by virtue of them having a number of comments and inbound links.

Then you can go back to Technorati, Blogpulse and Google blog search (or others like Ask or Blogdigger as suggested by a commenter) to search for key terms. Be sure to search in “posts” and in “tags.” Searching in posts will give you a list of blog posts that use your term. That’s handy, but depending on how generic your terms are, you may get a list of irrelevant and random posts.

A tag is the key term that the blogger has assigned to his or her post. Usually there are a few tags per blog post. By searching in tags, you’ll see posts that are specifically about your term. Of course, you can subscribe to tag searches too. Over time, you’ll learn which terms give you the most useful results.

There are good reasons for searching posts and tags. For example, not every blog uses tags (like this one, due to software troubles). But start paying attention to tags. It’s one tool that makes social media so dynamic.

Your homework is to test out some searches using terms related to your organization or a client. Compare the results you get from different search terms and different search services.

First Reason for Monitoring Blogs for Public Relations – And a Word About Reporting

Next installment of "Learning about Social Media from Your Desk"

There are at least reasons in public relations to monitor blogs:
• To find blog posts that mention your company
• To know what certain bloggers are saying about your industry
• To know what online conversations related to your industry or company

The first is both the easiest and the most obvious. Plus, you can easily justify the time you may spend on it. The nickname for this is “ego-surfing.”

The most time-consuming way to do this would be to go to Technorati, Blogpulse and Google blog search (or others) a couple of times a day and search for posts that include your company’s name, your CEO or client’s name, and a key product or brand name.

But why would you do this when we’ve got the power of RSS at our fingertips?

You can actually go to these services and create a unique RSS feed for your specific search terms and have the results show up in your RSS feed reader.

1. Today’s homework is to set up some RSS searches for your organization. Listen to Bryan Person’s how-to NewCommRoad podcast episode, “Ego-surfing with RSS.” It’s only 14 minutes. It will pay off fast.

2. The next thing to figure out will be what to do with what you find. The answer will depend on your processes and the volume of results you get. This year, in addition to my reports of media coverage, I started providing a separate report of blog posts. There were lots of practical judgment calls I have faced. For example, when a relevant post is on an influential blog that has lots of comments, at what point do you print it out as your file copy? I decided to include in my reports posts that mention our story but are on blogs that aren’t related to our industry. I did this because we are interested in whether or not people are talking about a particular social issue, so it doesn’t matter whether the issue is the focus of their blog or not.

And forget about trying to measure audience sizes. You can’t possibly. And it isn’t relevant anyway. The more important factor is which bloggers are more influential. You’ll start to distinguish those as you monitor them.

Online Searches of Media Coverage and Blog Posts Yield Varying Results

I was recently working on a report of media coverage for our board of directors. Thankfully, I don’t have to mess with column inches, gross impressions or any of those things. I just give them copies of articles and a list of coverage each quarter. This is the first time I have actually divided the report into “traditional media” and “social media” to distinguish and call attention to related blog conversations.

So that alone, I thought, was pretty hip. But there’s more to this story. It is well-known in the blogosphere that Google is the king of web site searching and Technorati is the queen of blog post searching.

But I’ve re-learned that there is value is using multiple sources.

I’d already set up Google’s cool alert feature to send me links to news articles that mention certain key words, like my organization’s name. But it misses a few here and there, so I also check Yahoo and Lexis.

A couple of months ago to monitor blog posts, I set up some Technorati searches that send results to me via RSS. Then each day, I checked and usually found no change – except for the story I shared with you recently.

But while I was working on my media report, on a whim, I decided to try Google’s blog search. Wow. I found a significant number of blog posts that I’d never seen.

Here’s my score card:

Number of articles in traditional news media identified by each search (January 2007)
Google Alerts = 5
Lexis search = 9
Google News search = 31
Yahoo News search = 32

Number of blog posts identified by each search (January 2007)
Technorati post search (via RSS) = 15
Technorati tag search = 1
Google Blog search = 30
Blogpulse search = 10

I am not promoting one service over another. In a different search, the results would be different I'm sure. I am simply grateful to these search services because I work for a non-profit and can’t afford the paid services (other than a mini-Lexis account). But neither can the average person in the social media space.