To find our the number of subscribers to a FeedBurner feed all you are required to use is this URL – http://feedproxy.google.com/~fc/ – along with the user’s FeedBurner name. Still with me?

Here’s an example:

My FeedBurner name is prblogger (that what this blog used to be called) so all you are required to do to view my subscriber account is this:

http://feedproxy.google.com/~fc/prblogger

Easy.

You can do it with other blogs too. Surprisingly I compared the two heavyweights of the Social Media blog world and the results are interesting. I’ve always thought Mashable and TechCrunch to be on a par in terms of size and readership. Granted TechCrunch has always had the upper-hand but in my own sphere of friends, colleagues, peers and industries (PR, marketing and media) it’s Mashable that seems to be the de facto social media news source.

However comparing both feeds TechCrunch has almost ten times as many readers subscribers as Mashable.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~fc/techcrunch

http://feedproxy.google.com/~fc/mashable

This is only one measure of course and if we were to take a look at traffic data using Compete.com you’ll see that Mashable has surpassed TechCrunch since May last year. My thoughts are it’s down to Mashable’s link baitable retweetable content.

So, in your opinion, which one counts the most? Traffic or subscribers?

If you’re a tech journo and you’re not on the list you can @reply me on Twitter, leave a comment on this post or send me a mail.

The Twitter list is available to follow also.

And if you’re interested, here’s a list of UK political journalists using Twitter.

BBC

Maggie Philbin – http://twitter.com/maggiephilbin
Aleks Krotoski – http://twitter.com/aleksk
Rory Cellan-Jones – http://twitter.com/ruskin147
Gareth Mitchell – http://twitter.com/GarethM
Jon Fildes – http://twitter.com/jonfildes
Zoe Kleinman – http://twitter.com/zsk

Computer Weekly

Angelica Mari – http://twitter.com/angelicamari
Mark Hillary – http://twitter.com/markhillary
Bryan Glick – http://twitter.com/Bryanglick
Cliff Saran – http://twitter.com/cliffsaran
Karl Flinders – http://twitter.com/karlfl
Faisal Alan – http://twitter.com/inspectagadgets
Rebecca Thomson – http://twitter.com/rebeccats

Econsultancy

Graham Charlton – http://twitter.com/gcharlton
P Robels – http://twitter.com/probles

The Gadget Show

Jason Bradbury – http://twitter.com/JasonBradbury
Suzy Perry – http://twitter.com/suziperry

The Guardian

Charles Arthur – http://twitter.com/charlesarthur
Stuart O’Connor – http://twitter.com/Stuart_OC
Jack Schofield – http://twitter.com/jackschofield
Jemima Kiss – http://twitter.com/jemimakiss
Kate Bevan – http://twitter.com/katebevan

PC Advisor

Simon Jary – http://twitter.com/simonjary
Paul Trotter – http://twitter.com/paultrotter
Matt Egan – http://twitter.com/MattJEgan
Rosemary Hattersley – http://twitter.com/RosieHattersley
David Price – http://twitter.com/pricivius
Carrie-Ann Skinner – http://twitter.com/CarrieSkinner

Pocket-Lint

Stuart Miles – http://twitter.com/stuartmiles
Chris Hall – http://twitter.com/christhall
Dan Sung – http://twitter.com/DanSung

Stuff Magazine

Will Findlater – http://twitter.com/willfindlater
Tom Dunmore – http://twitter.com/tomdunmorestuff
Fraser Macdonald – http://twitter.com/FraserMacStuff
Mark Wilson – http://twitter.com/markydwilson
Tom Wiggins – http://twitter.com/WiggoWiggo

TechRadar

Dan Grabham – http://twitter.com/dangrabham
Mark Chacksfield – http://twitter.com/mchax
Gareth Beavis – http://twitter.com/superbeav
Paul Douglas – http://twitter.com/pdouglas
Patrick Goss – http://twitter.com/PatrickGoss
James Rivington – http://twitter.com/Rungsberry

The Telegraph

Ian Douglas – http://twitter.com/IanDouglas
Claudine B – http://twitter.com/claudineb
Rupert Neate – http://twitter.com/RupertNeate
Emma Barnett – http://twitter.com/Emmabarnett
Matt Warman – http://twitter.com/mattwarman
Shane Richmond – http://twitter.com/shanerichmond

The Times

Joanna Geary – http://twitter.com/timesjoanna
Nic Fildes – http://twitter.com/LovesickHank

Wired UK

Nate Lanxon – http://twitter.com/NateLanxon
Ben Hammersley – http://twitter.com/benhammersley

Freelance

Michael Pollitt – http://twitter.com/michaelpollitt
Zara Rabinowicz – http://twitter.com/AlmostZara
Bobbie Johnson – http://twitter.com/bobbiejohnson
Chris Edwards – http://twitter.com/chrised
Mike Hills – http://twitter.com/mikewhills
Simon Bisson – http://twitter.com/sbisson
Danny Bradbury – http://twitter.com/dannybradbury
Tim Anderson – http://twitter.com/timanderson
Jonathan Bennett – http://twitter.com/jonobennett
Simon Munk - http://twitter.com/psimonk
Karl Hodge – http://twitter.com/karlhodge
Gary Marshall – http://twitter.com/garymarshall
Patrick Smith – http://twitter.com/psmith
Andrew Spode Miller – http://twitter.com/spode
Victor Keegan – http://twitter.com/vickeegan
Stuart Dredge – http://twitter.com/stuartdredge
Kirstie Brewer – http://twitter.com/KirstieBrewer

Other

Mike Hillier – http://twitter.com/Mikehillier (Music Tech Magazine)
Kris Sangani – http://twitter.com/Kris_Sangani (E&T Magazine)
Mark Prigg – http://twitter.com/markprigg (Evening Standard)
Mark Hattersley – http://twitter.com/markhattersley (Mac World)
Jane Douglas – http://twitter.com/janedouglas (Gamespot UK)
Dan Raywood – http://twitter.com/DanRaywood (SC Magazine)
Clare Newsome – http://twitter.com/ClareNewsome (What Hi-fi)
Davey Winder – http://twitter.com/happygeek (PC Pro)
Jason Jenkins – http://twitter.com/jenkojenkins (Cnet)
Kat Hannaford – http://twitter.com/clashcityrocker (Gizmodo)
Chris Davies – http://twitter.com/c_davies (Slash Gear)
Dawn Smith – http://twitter.com/missgadgetuk (Geeks.co.uk)
Nik Taylor – http://twitter.com/msntechnik (MSN)
Richard Lai – http://twitter.com/richardlai (Engadget)
Mike Simons – http://twitter.com/ITjournalist (Computer World)
Benjamin Cohen – http://twitter.com/benjamincohen (Channel 4 News)
Paul Kunert – http://twitter.com/Kunerticus (MicroScope)
Leila Makki – http://twitter.com/leilamakki

From the International Communications Consultancy Organisation.

• The international public relations consultancy sector is holding its own despite the economic crisis: corporate and crisis communications are big business, marketers are shifting budgets to PR, and digital is a key component for growth in the coming year according to the 2010 World Report, published today by the International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO).
• 2009 revenues for the broad majority of countries surveyed showed little to no variation over 2008. The most developed PR markets – the US and the UK – reported a drop of five percent in revenues on average.
• Not all countries fared as well: Slovenia took the hardest hit, showing an annual decline of thirty percent in consultancy revenues, while Belgium and Russia saw a decline of nearly 15 percent and Slovakia 10 percent.
• Crisis and corporate communications were the leading practice areas in terms of revenue generation for consultancies, being the most lucrative service in 17 and 12 countries respectively
• Compared to other disciplines, PR fared well internationally when it comes to share of spend. 15 of the 24 countries surveyed reported an overall increase in the proportion of client budgets dedicated to PR, coming directly at the expense of other marketing services such as advertising.
• ICCO’s members all agreed that digital was an important driver to growth in 2009, and the majority are expecting double digit growth in digital revenues this year.
• The world economy is still under considerable pressure – and this will undoubtedly impact revenues for 2010 – but when asked for a general assessment of local market conditions, 12 countries expected to see an improvement this year with an additional eight predicting stable conditions.
• The countries predicting growth expect it to be driven by: an increase in international business and foreign direct investment; demand for PR driven by the private sector looking to rebuild reputations damaged during the worst of the downturn; and a continued shift of budgets to PR from other marketing disciplines.
• The report also identified four top challenges facing PR consultancies internationally
• The ICCO 2010 World Report includes data from national PR trade associations in 24 countries spanning Europe, North and South America and Africa. Data was collected during March and April 2010 through a written questionnaire.
• The full report and supporting data tables can also be downloaded from the ICCO website.

In reality it’s not though. Social media is, by and large, a public version of yourself. Or, if you want to be really cynical, a public version of who you want to be which, again, I include myself in. It’s unlikely that most of us share our inner most thoughts as we tweet with people; some of which we briefly met once at a networking event in 2007 and others we don’t really know at all.

I often say the real conversations in social media go on behind closed doors. I can’t believe for one moment that you have thousands of PR people using social tools like Twitter (and yes I once counted them) who all just get along. There is a healthy rivalry in PR which is without doubt good for the industry. Thing is, it’s very rare that you actually see PR people calling each other out (in the UK at least, in the US they do). No matter what happens.

That’s why anonymous bloggers in the past such as Spin Bunny, Strumpette (who I once had an altercation with), …the world’s leading… and now sean376 on Twitter are needed. Blogs like these (and in sean376′s case Twitter profiles) are needed because the often hold a mirror up to people in social media and tell it how it really is.

So this blog post was inspired by a recent blog post written by Jed Hallam of agency Wolfstar which criticised another agency’s approach to blogger outreach. A telling sign in the blog post is that the agency name was left out but the client’s was not which is why I think Jed has received a load of flack in the comments over the incident.

Well, I’m not going to go into the ins and outs of it (all people involved on both sides are alright in my opinion) but having done something similar myself before and indeed been on the end of such criticism I can say that it’s often difficult sticking your head above the parapet and saying what you really think.

It’s the comments in the post that bother me. Some are bordering on hypocritical unless those that have commented have never ever criticised another agency either online or behind closed doors.

Ya’ see, social media isn’t *that* social.

UPDATE: You can follow this list using the UK Political Journalist Twitter list I’ve created.

BBC

Jon Sopel – http://twitter.com/BBCJonSopel
John Pienaar – http://twitter.com/JPonpolitics (5 Live)
Peter Henley – http://twitter.com/Peter_Henley
Tim Reid – http://twitter.com/TimReidBBC
Laura Kuenssberg – http://twitter.com/BBCLauraK
Anna Filipova – http://twitter.com/Anna_Filip

Channel 4 News

Gary Gibbon – http://twitter.com/GaryGibbonBlog
Cathy Newman – http://twitter.com/cathynewman

Daily Mirror

James Lyons – http://twitter.com/MirrorJames
Kevin Maguire – http://twitter.com/Kevin_Maguire
Vincent Moss – http://twitter.com/vincentmoss

ITV

Lucy Manning – http://twitter.com/lucymanning
Alex Forrest – http://twitter.com/alexforrestitv (ITN)
Chris Ship – http://twitter.com/chrisshipitv

News of the World

Ian Kirby – http://twitter.com/ianakirby
Sophy Ridge – http://twitter.com/sophyridge
David Wooding – http://twitter.com/DavidWooding

The Daily and Sunday Telegraph

Christopher Hope – http://twitter.com/christopherhope
Patrick Hennessy – http://twitter.com/PatJHennessy
James Kirkup – http://twitter.com/jameskirkup

The Guardian and Observer

Adam Bienkov – http://twitter.com/AdamBienkov
William Hutton – http://twitter.com/williamnhutton
Deborah Summers – http://twitter.com/DebsSummers
Jonathan Freedland – http://twitter.com/j_freedland
Michael White – http://twitter.com/MichaelWhite
Toby Helm – http://twitter.com/tobyhelm
Tom Clark – http://twitter.com/guardian_clark
Andrew Rawnsley – http://twitter.com/andrewrawnsley
Patrick Wintour – http://twitter.com/patrickwintour
Matt Wells – http://twitter.com/MatthewWells
Aditya Chakrabortly – http://twitter.com/chakrabortty
Paul Lewis – http://twitter.com/paul__lewis
Polly Curtis – http://twitter.com/pollycurtis
Helene Mulholland – http://twitter.com/lnmulholland
Andrew Sparrow – http://twitter.com/AndrewSparrow
Dave Hill – http://twitter.com/DaveHill
Martin Kettle – http://twitter.com/martinkettle
Will Woodward – http://twitter.com/w_woodward
Nicholas Watt – http://twitter.com/nicholaswatt
Allegra Stratton – http://twitter.com/allegrastratton
Gaby Hinsliff – http://twitter.com/gabyhinsliff

The Independent and Independent on Sunday

Simon Carr – http://twitter.com/simonsketch
Richard Osley – http://twitter.com/RichardOsley
Michael Savage – http://twitter.com/michaelsavage
Jane Merick – http://twitter.com/janemerrick23
John Rentoul – http://twitter.com/JohnRentoul

The Spectator

Alex Massie – http://twitter.com/alexmassie
Fraser Nelson – http://twitter.com/frasernels
Pete Hoskin – http://twitter.com/pete_hoskin

The New Statesman

Sophie Elmhirst – http://twitter.com/sophieelmhirst
Mehdi Hasan – http://twitter.com/ns_mehdihasan
James Macintyre – http://twitter.com/James_Macintyre
George Eaton – http://twitter.com/georgeeaton
Jon Bernstein – http://twitter.com/Jon_Bernstein

The Times

Ann Treneman – http://twitter.com/anntreneman
Sam Coates – http://twitter.com/SamCoatesTimes
Daniel Finkelstein – http://twitter.com/Dannythefink

Sky News

Miranda Richardson – http://twitter.com/mirandasky
Adam Boulton – http://twitter.com/adamboulton
Ruth Barnett – http://twitter.com/RuthBarnett

Other

Sunny Hundal – http://twitter.com/sunny_hundal (Pickled Politics)
Jonathan Walker – http://twitter.com/jonwalker121 (Birmingham Post and Mail)
David Singleton – http://twitter.com/david_singleton (PR Week)
David Hughes – http://twitter.com/DavidHughesPA (Press Association)
David Maddox – http://twitter.com/DavidPBMaddox (The Scotsman)
Tomos Livingstone – http://twitter.com/TomosL (Western Mail)
Matt Chorley – http://twitter.com/MattChorley (Western Morning News)
Torcuil Crichton – http://twitter.com/Torcuil (Daily Record)
David Stringer – http://twitter.com/David_Stringer (Associated Press)
Nigel Nelson – http://twitter.com/NigelNelson (Sunday People)
Paul Waugh – http://twitter.com/paulwaugh (London Evening Standard)
Kirsty Walker – http://twitter.com/kirstywalker1 (Daily Mail)

Here’s my presentation for anyone that’s interested.

The view from my hotel room

From the press release, “A group of the world’s most influential leaders will descend upon London on Feb. 8, 2010. Kofi Annan, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Sir Bob Geldof, former President of Peru Alejandro Toledo, HRM Crown Prince Haakon of Norway and U.S. Sen. John Kerry will all gather in service of several hundreds delegates representing the world’s youth.

“The One Young World Inaugural Summit is the event drawing the international spectrum of leaders, but, more important, say founders, the first-ever leadership summit for people age 25 and under is bringing together young leaders from the world’s 192 countries to confront today’s major global challenges.”

The announcement of the event coincides with a piece of research which is apparently one of the largest global youth studies ever undertaken which identified the top ten trends of 20-somethings. Findings below:

1. Real-time expectations

Anyone in his or her 20s living in an economically developed community has never known life without instant communication everywhere. Twenty-somethings communicate with friends on the go, in real time—no waiting for snail mail. They get the latest news as it happens, with a live feed from where it’s happening—no waiting for the scheduled news on TV or radio. Whenever they need to dig out information about virtually anything, it’s there, in abundance; there’s no need to dig around in books.

Twenty-somethings are riding the wave of real-time living. If it’s not real time, 20-somethings switch their focus to something that is.

2. Living more intense local lives

One of the great paradoxes of borderless, global real-time technology is the way it reinforces local connections.

As adept users of real-time technology, 20-somethings are able to live locally more intensely. With mobile devices they make social arrangements on the fly. With location-based services through Google and others, they can locate friends who happen to be nearby; they can also get alerts from whichever companies in the vicinity are offering interesting deals.

Facebook typifies the paradox. Now with 350 million users worldwide, it was started by 20-somethings at Harvard for local users. It grew by extending its services to other local groups (e.g. other Ivy League universities). Like many big cities, Facebook is just an amalgam of discrete localities.

3. Radically transparent

Twenty-somethings have grown up with reality TV and radical celebrity culture—media poking into every corner of people’s lives, from Hollywood A-listers right down to the lowliest got-lucky types who copped their 15 minutes of fame by accident. They’ve grown up in a culture of the highest-level confidential information “leaks,” a world where even the great and the good confess mistakes and show emotion to millions.

In their personal lives they are constantly using technologies with which they can bare all—sometimes literally—to their friends. They are more or less aware that online nothing can be considered confidential, but they go ahead anyway.

Right or wrong, this is a generation that’s on a clear trend toward being more transparent about its thoughts, feelings and actions than has any previous generation.

4. Expecting cheap or free everything

Globalization has made many essentials of life very cheap. Twenty-somethings are used to a world where value and discounted offerings are everywhere. They can fill their stomachs and clothe themselves at unbelievably low cost. Budget airline travel is normal for them. The Internet has accustomed them to getting music, software and services for free, either legally or illegally. After all, one of the biggest, most powerful brands on the planet (Google) offers a huge range of powerful services at no cost to the user.

The trend of cheap or free expectations among 20-somethings will increasingly shape business models.

5. Entertainment must be part of the deal

In some parts of the world—particularly the West—fun and entertainment have long become an essential part of education. Twenty-somethings have grown up with Sesame Street and animated, interactive, fun graphics in the classroom and in museums. Hence the notion of Edutainment.

All over the world, even in places where older, more dutiful approaches to education prevail, fun and games have become a staple activity of young people. These have been promoted by corporations and endorsed by researchers as beneficial.

In an extensive 38-country online survey of 15,844 young adults aged 23-28 fielded by SurveyShack in association with YouGovStone between July 2008 and December 2009, 59 percent of respondents said they regularly play video or computer games in their spare time; this makes gaming the second-most popular activity after socializing (61 percent).

6. Worrying about the planet

Twenty-somethings are certainly keen on play and entertainment, but there’s a more serious undertone affecting their lives. Every day they are exposed to more and more worrying reports about what’s going wrong with the planet: climate change, disappearing species, habitat destruction and water shortages have been daily fare for 20-somethings through all their adult life.

In the survey, 64 percent of respondents saw climate change affecting them seriously in their lifetime and 82 percent saw it affecting future generations seriously; 64 percent thought that only immediate radical changes can prevent the most serious impacts of climate change.

Going forward, assuming the planetary news doesn’t improve, the worrying trend of 20-somethings will become the norm.

7. Seeing luxuries as standard

Twenty-somethings now think nothing of paying significant amounts for key products and services that are actually luxuries by historical standards. Whether they’re paid for by parents or out of their own money, normal life for 20-somethings now includes:
· A mobile device of some sort (e.g. smart phone, iPod Touch) with a camera, costing well above $100, plus monthly fees
· A computer costing at least $300, with monthly broadband fees on top
· A wide-screen TV, costing at least $300, with cable and satellite fees on top
· Higher education as far as they can go—bachelor’s degree, postgraduate studies

8. Pro-business, anti-multinational

Today’s 20-somethings are far removed from the left-wing and countercultural ideologies that fired up young people in the late 1960s and early 1970s. All around the world they’ve been raised in an environment in which free markets were regarded as the solution to everything and which certainly delivered plenty of consumer goodies to make life more fun. Twenty-somethings aren’t anti-business. After all, some of their favorite brands were founded by 20-somethings. Their lives are filled with the things that business has produced.

However, they’re not so keen on multinational corporations. In the survey, two-thirds of respondents (66 percent) think global corporations have too much power, and 81 percent think global corporations must behave responsibly and ethically.

Multinational corporations have long been the object of concern for a few; now, as Generation Real-Time shares information fast, they’re becoming the concern of many young people. This time around, the young people don’t aspire to bring those big corporations down by force; instead, they aspire to out-business them.

9. Regulate the heck out of media bias

Media 2010 is a lot bigger field than it was in 2000 or 1990. Titles in traditional formats (TV, radio and print) are now available through the Internet, along with others that only exist on the Internet. Increasingly diverse media titles and news sources are available to anyone with the curiosity to click on a link. No wonder a substantial 70 percent of respondents in the survey get their news via the Internet.

The broader choice of media, plus increasing educational levels and media savvy, makes 20-somethings more aware than ever of media bias; they can compare versions of the same story and read commentary from different angles. This is probably why 70 percent of respondents think all news media should be regulated so that it’s clearly independent of state and corporate bias.

At the same time, they don’t want government to regulate social media. It’s called MySpace, after all.

10. Naturally Me but aspiring to We

Self, personal and personalized have been abiding themes throughout lives of today’s 20-somethings: self-expression, self-esteem, personal computers, personal profiles, personalized settings, personal development and personal branding—also known as A Brand Called Me. Whether the national culture is highly individualistic (e.g. United States) or more collectivist (e.g. China), technology and business have thrived by enabling people to express themselves: to be more Me.

Culturally and commercially, 20-somethings have been indulged and encouraged to be more selfish than were previous generations. Yet they are also now acutely aware that everyone pursuing selfish interests creates the planetary problems that are worrying them.

Hence the trend of 20-somethings caught between the impulse to do their own thing and the desire to do the right thing together. Or as the pithy observation has it, “Everybody wants to save the earth; nobody wants to help mom do the dishes.”

YouTube is becoming the communication channel of choice among senior executives during a time of crisis. CEOs, presidents and other important senior staff are using YouTube to go direct to their stakeholders while cutting out the (often negative) traditional media in the process.

The latest example is Toyota Motor Sales President & COO, Jim Lentz (see below) who is using YouTube to communicate with customers regarding the recent news of the the sticking pedals.

But Mr Lentz is not the first as you will see below.

Toyota Motor Sales President & COO, Jim Lentz

Founder and CEO of jetBlue Airways, David Neeleman. (No longer CEO)

After jetBlue customers suffered terrible conditions and waiting times at JFK Airport which was subsequently documented in the press, Neeleman used YouTube to make a public apology and to outline what the company intended to do.

President of Domino’s, Patrick Doyle

Basically: Two Domino’s Pizza staff uploaded a video to YouTube of themselves doing disgusting things to the fast food chain’s food. The video spread like wildfire and negative press ensued which caused president of Domino’s, Patrick Doyle, to upload his own video to YouTube to alert customers and other interested parties on the company’s reaction to the video and the steps it had taken.

CEO of Mattel, Bob Eckert

Mattel had to recall over 1 million Chinese-made toys because of potential hazards from parts of the toys which were colored using lead-based paint. It was found that the amount of lead in the paint exceeded US government limits. Bob Eckert looked to quash worries by posting this YouTube clip.

Notice one thing? They’re all American. Having spoke with many UK (and European) PR execs over the years about deploying such tactics I’ve found that the majority of PR people don’t think it would work as well in their respective countries. Personally, I think it depends.

• 1.7 billion irrelevant press release emails estimated to be received in total each year by UK and US Journalists alone

• 78% of press release emails are received by Recipients to whom they are irrelevant

• 55% of Recipients have taken action to block a sender of news

Disclosure: RealWire is a client and I was involved in this campaign