• First topic for the day was an upcoming issue of Vanity Fair magazine that profiles Politico. The article is a great read and provides some interesting insight, but what the Roundtable focused most on was the appeal of niches, the limitations of niches, and what other news producers can learn from Politico's success.

• Next, the group returns to the familiar topic of whether content wants to be free. Malcolm Gladwell recently reviewed Chris Anderson's new book "Free: The Future of a Radical Price," in the New Yorker. Anderson responded on his blog, and the Roundtable discusses what the definition of "free" is, and how compensation for content can be defined.

• Finally, Todd Defren's recent post asking what "social media evangelists are looking to accomplish," specifically with respect to the enterprise, spurred some discussion, with the Roundtable participants concluding that the individualized nature of social media makes it hard to pinpoint exactly what could be the end answer to this question.

• With the luxury of a look back and with a little time for reflection, how big of a role has Twitter really played during the Iranian election aftermath? The group discusses Todd Defren's strongly felt post on the topic, but is it possible that communicators (and the media) are overstating the impact Twitter has had?

• Next, Habitat, a higher-end retailer, faced some backlash by using hashtags such as #Iran and #Mousavi to drive sales via Twitter. And Connie Reece recently did the unthinkable considering her views on Twitter--she locked her Twitter updates, due to spam, porn, and other problems with newcomers trying to game the service...and Guy Kawasaki's account got hacked. What do all of these problems mean for Twitter in the long run?

• Finally, is social media fatigue making us grumpy? Geoff Livingston has stated that social media is dead, Beth Harte doesn't care for social media leeches, and Doug Haslam is getting impatient. Have we spent too much time contemplating, discussing, attending conferences, and writing about social media?

• First, how different would the world view Tianamen Square had social media existed then as it does now? Are bloggers and individuals the only reliable sources of news in repressive regimes?
• Next, Mitch Joel points to some interesting numbers coming out of Deloitte's workplace survey. If employees aren't thinking about what they post online and don't think it's any of their bosses' business anyway, what's the best way to protect a company's reputation?
• Finally, BusinessWeek Editor in Chief John A. Byrne discloses that he had to "bribe" reporters to engage online. Jen isn't really sure what to make of this, but thinks each evolution in media has brought reporters one step closer to their audiences. Short of having a reporter over for dinner, interacting on Twitter is probably closer than most people get to those who deliver the news.

The impact of social media on the public relations profession is always a hot topic on Twitter, but the conversation soars into overdrive between 8:00-10:00 Eastern every Monday night during #JournChat.

#JournChat is a hashtag-based Twitter discussion among PR pros, journalists, and bloggers founded in November 2008 by Sarah Evans, AKA @PRSarahEvans, whose day job is director of communications at Elgin Community College in suburban Chicago.

Like many interesting projects on Twitter, #JournChat started more or less by accident.

"One Monday night as I was having a conversation [on Twitter]-this was around the time when hashtags started to get big and people saw they could track conversations through them-I just added in the #JournChat hashtag," Evans said during a recent conversation for Media Bullseye Radio that can be streamed or downloaded below. "And I think that first week the journalists and bloggers and PR folks talked for a good four hours on Twitter, and I just asked the question, 'Are you all interested in coming back next Monday to do the same thing?' And they said yes, and it's been happening ever since."

Click here to listen to the full 15-minute conversation with #JournChat founder and moderator Sarah Evans.

Evans serves as the moderator for the two-hour chat each week, fielding potential questions from participants through the @JournChat account and then passing on the best ones to the group. Some #JournChats feature special guests, too, such as CNN's Steve Brusk (@SteveBruskCNN) and, most recently, Richard Laermer (@Laermer), co-founder of the Bad Pitch Blog. 

The chat has also achieved enough of a critical mass-a typical Monday #JournChat garners some 2,500 tweets-that it has attracted paid sponsors. Evans clearly labels all sponsored tweets, and says she does so with the full blessing of the #JournChatters.

"Before I ever initiated the sponsored tweets, I put out a question out to all #JournChat participants asking how they would feel about it," said Evans. "Everyone said, 'If I could do it, I would do it. Go for it.'"

Click here to listen to the full 15-minute conversation with #JournChat founder and moderator Sarah Evans.

Bryan Person is the social media evangelist at LiveWorld. He blogs at BryanPerson.com and can be found on Twitter at http://Twitter.com/BryanPerson.

• First, the group looks at how social media is changing communications structures within companies, knocking down existing silos between communications, PR, and customer service. Jen points out that these are the easy silos to cross--what about ones, like legal, that have decidedly different organizational objectives? Nathan points out that with a structured approach, even those silos can be tackled, it just takes longer.
• Second topic for the group is how some companies are perhaps going a bit too far in pushing the creative aspect of using social media--two examples come from Dave Fleet and Silicon Alley Insider. In the case that Dave describes, he questioned the intent of the outreach, and in Silicon Alley's case, it appears as though they didn't question enough, accepting a 'news release' of a vampire blog joining the Gawker network.
• Third, Shel Holtz and Todd Defren both recently had interesting posts about the difference between a marketing campaign and social media engagement. It's an important distinction because so much of agency work--both PR and Advertising/marketing--is driven by "campaigns"--set lengths of time wherein goals are set, and hopefully achieved with a beginning, middle, and end. The group looks at how good social media work fits into this picture.

• First, the Roundtable recaps Shonali's presentation at the Ragan conference, and how that presentation correlates with Beth Harte's post about Social Media's Dirty Little Secret.

• Next up, the group discusses the phenomenon of marketing to bloggers--are some bloggers  becoming mini-Oprahs, where their friends/followers/fans take all of their advice, and head out and purchase? Jen asks if the review of a blogger *really* as good as the recommendation of a friend or family member, or is marketing to bloggers really becoming more about product placement--with a really long tail and Google memory? Shonali and Chip both point out that the measures of success really depend on what is established as the goal of the outreach.
  

• And finally, Shonali discusses her efforts in using social media to find a new home for Darby.

• Should alumni of college newspapers be able to preclude their articles from appearing in online archives?
• How far can a "virtual assistant" go in helping you maintain your social networking presence?
• Are we on the verge of a rise in the amount of paid content provided by media companies online or does content really want to be free?

• First, the Roundtable spent quite a bit of time discussing the results of the FIR survey, calling out some noteable findings. Jen was surprised at the gender split (77 percent of FIR listeners are men), and Mark offered his thoughts as someone who took the survey. Neville provided a lot of insight as to why they collect this information--and why they make it publicly available.
• Next, as Mother's Day is this Sunday (still time to get flowers and a card, and don't forget to call mom!) the group discussed Catherine Connors of Her Bad Mom, and the effort to "go around the world in 80 clicks." This effort linking mom bloggers across the globe demonstrates the international power of community, and the ability to link to one another through a shared experience--motherhood--in addition to shared interests.
• Finally, the group touched on an article that ran in the New York Times about PR facing a downturn during the recession. Is the recession really the reason for a decline in business, or is this a correction, and does it take into account the introduction of new tools, such as social media?
  

• With the H1N1 virus spreading (honoring the Pork Producers' Association request to *please, please* not call it the 'swine flu') the Roundtable covers the communications lessons drawn from this crisis, from both a traditional communications perspective and a social media perspective. Does social media help, or hurt, the ability to disseminate accurate information? 

• A recent piece from PC World about Twitter users being fickle seems to reinforce what some have been saying about all of the new Twitter joiners, especially post-Oprah. The Roundtable looks at what makes Twitter useful and valuable, then Jay doses reality on all of it by pointing out that if Twitter can't figure out a way to make money, PR people might have to find a way to survive without it.
  

• The final topic of the day was about Jennifer Mattern's very interesting piece on comment policies. The Roundtable discusses the difference between comment policies on personal blogs versus professional media outlet sites, manners in general, and "seagull commenters."

• First item for discussion was the video of two Domino's employees, the critcism of the company's response, and the ensuing fallout: is this a lesson in where social media can head? From crowd-sourcing the detective work on, it's an interesting case. The Roundtable also covered issues related to this topic, including the roles and responsibilities of the corporation verses the franchises--Beth points out both should be monitoring, each for different reasons--and the increasing importance of an accelerated response time.

• Next, Pandemic Blog had a piece that makes the link between the rise of social media with the decline in the economy, surmising that it was necessary to turn to social media when "bloated" advertising budgets got cut. The Roundtable participants are skeptical of this linkage, and Mark Story points out that Ashton Kutcher being the first person to get 1 million followers on Twitter could be a sign of the Apocolypse.
  

• Finally, Geoff Livingston had a post about being "brandjacked by Seesmic"--while Geoff clearly was okay with this use, the piece itself raises some interesting questions about our rights to content we post in public spaces. Does the way that our content is reused matter--if it's positive, it's okay, if it's negative, it's not okay? Beth asks if we're heading towards the same scenario for images as we've seen for music, that all digital content will be protected. Mark manages to compare Geoff's description of his situation to the Allysa Milano photo controversy a few years back.

• First topic for the day was Marshall Kirkpatrick's post about monitoring platforms being "creepy."  Are we so accustomed to measuring, monitoring, and tracking that we don't see that some people might find data collection "creepy?" Or, is not being tracked and analyzed even a realistic expectation when people complain about something online--isn't at least part of the reason they are complaining is that they *want* someone from the company to help? What role does PR play if a practitioner can't really tell if the customer wants help or is just venting?

• Next, a topic seen before bouncing around the blogosphere is whether PR firms should be judged on the presence of a blog. While some firms, like PerkettPR, have embraced blogging, other firms have blogs that are started and rarely updated, or they aren't there at all. Is it right to judge a firm based on this, or are there other criteria that are more important when determining an agency's social media savvy?

• Finally, with the very public fuss between Google and the AP this week, the Roundtable revisits the "paid versus free" debate. The group discussed a NYT piece on the topic, and Jeff Jarvis's post on how newspapers "blew it."

• Jeff Jarvis's post about Huffington Post's new donor fund to pay for investigative reporting kicked off the discussion on the Roundtable. Kyle thought the effort seemed interesting, but wonders if the model Huffington Post is suggesting will have the capability to be any more than a small part of the media picture. The question of bias came up, as clearly the Huffington Post has a political bent, and Chip argued that all media has bias, he'd just like everyone to acknowledge and disclose it.
• Dave Fleet's post on the blurring of lines between PR, Marketing, and Advertising was the next topic, highlighted by the fact that not only has Kyle posted about this, he's actually made the transition from PR to more of a marketing role. Chip, ever the contrarian, states that he doesn't think the disciplines are blurring at all. After some discussion of communicating objectives between the different disciplines, Jen predicts that the next big PR field will be Internal Comms.
• Next up for discussion was Crisisblogger's post about online attacks not mattering so much in light of a piece in AdAge. The results of a survey post-Motrin debacle showed that, well, all the fuss didn't matter much--at all. Should brands maybe not fold like a cheap suit in the face of an online kerfuffle? Jen points out that a movie distributor attacked online recently is taking the opposite approach and simply writing off the criticism. Is this an isolated reaction, or an indication of things to come?
  
• Finally, a plug for a charitable cause as Kyle and other fans of the Red Sox will be holding an opening day party to raise funds for the (Austin) Capital Area Food Bank.