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KD Paine’s data-driven analysis of how journalists use social media kicked off the sessions I attended at today’s Marketing Profs online conference.

First, her most memorable quotes on the trends in PR 2.0:

“I check Twitter before I check email.”

“Everyone is a journalist, and there are no more deadlines.”

“Twitter is news before it’s news.”

These recent changes in news-gathering have changed how journalists and marketers relate, as indicated in some telling facts from one of her recent media relations surveys:

• 100% of “millennial” journalists, ages 18-29, believe new media communication tools are enhancing journalism.
• Only 40% of journalists ages 50-64 think these tools are important.
• 87% of journalists ages 18-29 confirm new media communications are enhancing their relationships with their audiences.
• Only 42% of journalists ages 50-64 agree.
• 48% of all respondents use LinkedIn and 45% use Facebook to assist in their reporting.
• 68% of all respondents use blogs to keep up with issues.
• 86% of all respondents use company websites for information about an organization.

For marketers, KD shared her ”7 Steps to Social Media ROI”:

(1) Define the R (what return is expected?)

(2) Define the I (what’s the investment?)

(3) Understand your audiences and what motivates them

(4) Define the metrics (what do you want to become?)

(5) Determine what you are benchmarking against 

(6) Pick a tool and start your research

(7) Analyze results, gain insight, take action — and keep measuring

If you remember nothing else, repeat after KD: “You are what you measure.”

Not only is small the new big, but less is the new more — ergo, Alltop.

Thanks to the dizzying amount of information overload on the Internet daily, suddenly everyone I talk to is crying for simplicity. And accessing information in bite-size dozes through dusty research books or the inky morning newspaper at the front door is starting to feel revolutionary. Just enough information for one day and one sitting.

Now for blog-harnessing, Alltop seems to make things simpler than than RSS, according to megabloggers like John Haydon and Brian Solis.  It’s an online magazine rack organized by topic — all in one place on the desktop.

All this got me to thinking about a revitalized niche for middlemen and women. Seth Grodin’s article on the changing role of “agents” hit a similar theme. In a self-service Internet culture where anything is a keystroke away, there’s simply too much information to manage. Agents who are specialists in their field and stand for something can really help their customers cut through the clutter to make good business or personal decisions. Come to think of it, I started using a travel agent again. That way, I can focus on my skills as an “information agent” for my customers, distilling information to advance their business goals, while my travel agent uses her expertise, connections and judgment to save me time and money.

As selectivity becomes the new excess, “keeping it simple” is an old idea with very modern currency.